Ray Wise and Katy Joseph of Maple City own a car, which gets them where they want to go.

RAY WISE and Katy Joseph wait for BATA’s Village Connector
bus in Maple City Tuesday morning. They use BATA to get to Traverse
City each day for work and school. The buses are also designed to
transport bicycles, which Wise and Joseph use to get around
Traverse City.

But when they need to go to Traverse City, as they do every week day for work and school, they take the bus.

Wise, 23, and Joseph, 22, use the Empire Village Connector bus route offered by the Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA).

“We use it when ever we can. It’s the best way to get into Traverse City,” Wise said.
“It’s always reliable and is generally on time, give or take a few minutes,” Joseph said.

The couple usually catch the bus in the morning at the Maple City Short Stop convenience store. On Tuesday, they had to leave their car with a mechanic in Cedar so they were waiting at Bunting’s, another designated stop for the Empire connector.

Wise said on any given day he sees three to four other people taking the bus into Traverse City, but ridership goes up and down depending on the season and gas prices.
“There were a lot of times earlier this year, before summer, where every seat was full,” he said.

Wise and Joseph are the people BATA officials hope will get out and vote in Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties on Tuesday, Nov. 6. BATA announced this week that it is seeking a renewal of two property tax millages approved in 2003: a .25-mill request which funds existing services, and a .10-mill request for new services. The requests are being joined as one .35-mill renewal sought for five years.

The countywide measure will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Joe DeKoning, executive director of BATA and a Lake Leelanau resident, said the two-county transportation authority is not seeking an increase but a continuance of what voters approved in July 2003.

Leelanau and Grand Traverse voters overwhelmingly approved the requests in 2003. In Leelanau, the .25-mill request was approved, 3,118-1,024. The .10-mill measure was also approved in the county, 2,624-1,485.

As part of the “new services” millage, BATA established three Village Connector routes – two in Leelanau and one in Grand Traverse. In addition to the Village Connector Empire route, similar runs were established in Northport, and Kingsley/Fife Lake.

DeKoning said the Northport Village Connector route has seen its rider numbers increase dramatically over the last two years. From Sept. 1, 2005 to Aug. 31, 2006, 4,755 people used the route. That number jumped 26 percent to 5,970 in the next 12 months.

“Establishing these connector routes has lead to more people using the bus system. New routes tend to increase ridership,” he said.

The Empire Village Connector Route was established in 2006. During its first year of service DeKoning said 3,605 people used the route. Through the end of August DeKoning said about 2,200 people have used the route, which is up from 2006.

DeKoning said establishing the connector routes in Leelanau County was a top priority for BATA. Now, the BATA board is looking at possibly establishing new connector routes to the Interlochen and Grawn areas.

The two voter-approved measures that equaled .35-mills has been reduced under the Headlee property tax rollback requirement that was made part of the state’s Constitution in the late 1970s. Consequently, for 2006 the combined millage amounts equal .328-mill.

DeKoning said the local property tax is a necessary base for securing the authority’s $5 million budget. “The millage produces about $2.2 million, but without the local matching base, we wouldn’t qualify for the state and federal support we get. Without this millage we will not be able to offer level of service the public has come to expect,” he said.

As to any new routes being established in Leelanau County, DeKoning said after the Interlochen/Grawn route is established BATA is considering a village connector route to Leland. He said that probably won’t happen within the next two or three years.

“I’m waiting to see what the outcome of the ongoing regional land use transportation study will be. We will want to coordinate our efforts with whatever recommendations come out of that effort,” DeKoning said.