Twin Transit
Transportation isn’t just about getting from point A to point B, Lewis County Commissioner Bobby Jackson and Twin Transit General Manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers told the Winlock City Council Monday night.
Transportation drives economic development when it helps workers get to their jobs, promotes public health when it carries residents to medical appointments, supports education when it takes students in Vader to class at Centralia College, and provides freedom to those with low incomes or who can’t drive, they said.
“We have two areas of Lewis County that have service but you have vast swaths of areas … that have no transportation services,” Wojcik-Damers said. “There are people in Lewis County who have to have the ability to take the bus … Having this available to them would be a huge step in having people get into the workforce.”
Jackson and Wojcik-Damers made a stop Monday night on the Winlock leg of a tour of rural Lewis County cities to spread the word about a proposal to expand the Lewis Public Transportation Benefit Area to all parts of the county by 2019.
“If it’s a viable plan, the vote will be in November,” Wojcik-Damers said.
The Board of Lewis County Commissioners has scheduled a conference to discuss the expansion for 10 a.m. April 6 at the Lewis County Courthouse, 351 NW North St. in Chehalis.
Currently, the Lewis Public Transportation Benefit Area, better known as Twin Transit, includes Centralia and Chehalis, while Lewis Mountain Highway Transit, a nonprofit, serves East Lewis County. However, Lewis Mountain Highway Transit is scheduled to cease service in 2019.
The April 6 conference is the next step outlined by Washington law in the process of expanding a public transportation benefit area, Wojcik-Damers said.
Jackson noted state Rep Ed. Orcutt, R-Kalama, is scheduled to be there as well.
The intention is for the group to agree on a boundary for the expanded district at that meeting, Wojcik-Damers said. Voters will have an opportunity to accept the expansion and the accompanying levy in the future.
Jackson said he believes the expansion of public transportation in the county has the possibility to be a huge economic driver for years to come, benefiting residents and communities from Packwood to Pe Ell.
“My vision for this is going to go further than I’m going to be around,” he said.
He noted the last time the county did a feasibility study on taking transit countywide was in 1997, and while the plan found it would be feasible, no action was taken.
“We’re revisiting that,” he said. “We are making a full-on effort to bring this to fruition in Lewis County.”
Wojcik-Damers said the majority of bus users are headed to college classes or medical appointments. He echoed Jackson’s statement that better bus service would spur economic development.
Winlock Mayor Don Bradshaw said he remembered being a part of that study and said he and other mayors were disappointed transit had never reached Lewis County’s rural areas to the south and west.
Wojcik-Damers, on the job for about two months, said he isn’t sure exactly why the effort to expand transit services in the late 1990s failed, but said one thing is certain — the whole county still needs transit options.
The expansion would not affect Twin Transit’s four existing routes and would be able to absorb those of Lewis Mountain Highway Transit, he said.
Currently, Twin Transit is funded with a two-tenths of 1 percent sales tax within the transportation district. If that district was expanded to the whole county, all sales in the county would add to their budget.
Estimates show the expanded transportation district could accommodate regular commuter routes to Tumwater, routes to the Winlock, Toledo and Vader areas, a few routes a week to Kelso and dial-a-ride access to Pe Ell and Doty, Wojcik-Damers said.
“We know there is enough money to pay for these bus services. We also know there’s room for growth,” he said. “That would create transportation for everyone.”
On Monday, Bradshaw said he would be present at the conference and advocate for the expansion.
“We as a community will be active partners,” he said.
Jackson said leaders from other towns have also expressed support.
The proposed expansion would happen alongside efforts to build a transit center on North Pearl Street in downtown Centralia, Wojcik Damers said Monday.
“They are very much related, but separate projects,” he said, noting that the agency plans to have the site “shovel-ready” in July 2019.
The new general manager is looking into grant opportunities to pay for the construction, which he said would act as the “cornerstone” of the expanded transportation system in Lewis County.
“It’s our turn,” he said. “We need to have this as a community.”
