DUNKLIN TRANSIT ROLLS ALONG

MALDEN, Mo. -- Nina Davidson walked slowly to a mini-bus, inching along with the help of a walker outside the Country Mart supermarket. Driver Ricky Smith carried her plastic bags of groceries and helped the 98-year-old Malden woman to a seat on the 16-passenger Dunklin County Transit bus.

"It's the only transportation I got," said Davidson, who has depended on the door-to-door transit service to get around town for 15 years.

She isn't alone: Last year, the not-for-profit Dunklin County Transit Services Inc. made 485,000 one-way trips, racked up 545,580 miles and served 2,856 individuals.

State transportation officials and members of the fledgling Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority view it as a model transit system. The Cape Girardeau County Commission appointed the five-member transit authority and a nine-member advisory committee last summer to develop a more unified and efficient system of public transportation in Cape Girardeau County. The transit authority, only the second to be established in Missouri, plans to hire a consultant to help map out transportation improvements.

The authority could take some cues from Dunklin County Transit, a nearly $450,000 a year operation with 30 buses and vans based in Malden.

Most of its funding comes from federal and state money, much of it distributed by the Missouri Department of Transportation or in the form of contracts with various social- services agencies. Money raised by service contracts goes toward the local match needed to secure the MoDOT funding.

MoDOT funding

Dunklin County Transit is scheduled to receive over $107,000 from MoD0T in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Dunklin County Transit also plans to spend $179,000 on capital expenses including several new vehicles and other equipment. Federal funding will pay 80 percent of the capital cost.

The transit service provides low-cost transportation to Dunklin County residents, many of them elderly and on fixed incomes.

Most of the travel occurs Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., although some trips occur at other hours of the day. There are different routes on different days. Some of the buses run local routes in Malden and Kennett, Mo., and others make regular trips to Poplar Bluff, Mo., providing transportation to stores and doctors' offices.

Buses even pick people up in Campbell, Gideon, Senath and other small Missouri towns on certain days.

The transit service also takes people from Dunklin, Stoddard, Scott, Mississippi and Cape Girardeau counties to doctors as far away as St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn.

It regularly transports patients for dialysis treatment. Many of its riders are Medicaid patients. The state contracts for such medical trips based on bids secured from various transit services in advance of each trip.

Dunklin County Transit also hauls the handicapped workers of Kennett's sheltered workshop. It carries welfare-to-work participants from Kennett and Malden to jobs at two factories in Piggott, Ark., six days a week under a government-funded contract.

Late last year, Dunklin County was transporting as many as 65 welfare-to-work recipients to jobs in Arkansas. That number has since dropped to around 28.

During the summer, the transit service transports children of migrant workers for required schooling.

The transit service has contracts with a number of agencies, including the Area Agency on Aging and the Division of Family Services.

"We have everything on computer," said Mary Lee, who manages the transit service.

MoDOT, which funnels state and federal money to Dunklin County Transit, recognized the transit operation as the best rural transportation service in the state in 1998. State officials credited Lee's tireless dedication and management with putting the transit system at the head of the list.

Humble beginnings

Lee has been involved with the transit service from its inception in 1980 when the Area Agency on Aging donated a 12-passenger van to provide transportation for the elderly. Initially, the transit service didn't have enough money to operate the van.

In August 1982, the transit service began operating as a not-for-profit corporation. It currently has a 12-member board of directors, about 20 full- and part-time drivers and four office workers, including Lee.

Betty Davis of Malden depends on the transit buses to get to local stores. "I love to go," said Davis, who doesn't have a car. She spent a recent Tuesday being shuttled from store to store in Malden, a town of about 5,000 people in northern Dunklin County. Her shopping trip included stops at Wal-Mart and the Dollar Store. She also picked up some groceries, leaving them on the bus between stops.

Passengers regularly leave their groceries on the bus while they visit other stores. "Sometimes the apples roll up here," said Smith, who drives part time for the transit service while continuing to work full time for the local ambulance service.

Davis and the other passengers pay little to get around town, thanks to government subsidies. It costs a passenger only $3 to travel around Malden for the day. A round-trip to Kennett costs $5. Dunklin County residents can travel to Poplar Bluff and back for $10 a ride.

Davis said there's more to being a bus driver than just driving. "You've got to have a bus driver that loves to deal with people," she said.

The buses come equipped with wheelchair lifts. One passenger used to have a grocery cart piled high with food. Smith would load the grocery cart onto the wheelchair lift and right into the bus for the trip to the man's home.

Adlean Bristow of Malden said the transit service is handy. "I take it to the doctor mostly," she said. "This is the only means of some people getting anywhere."