RONAN — Getting around rural Montana without driving is almost impossible, that is unless you have an organization like Western Montana Transit that provides public transportation for those that don’t drive.
Thanks to the groundbreaking of its new transit center on Tuesday, they’re excited to see what the future might hold as they continue to see increased use.
“We’re really excited to kind of have a place to call home that we can actually do our own scheduling and our own training, that it’s going to be a lot better place for us to work out of,” said Western Montana Aging Services executive director Lori Thibodeau.
The new transit center in downtown Ronan will have 10 bays for Western Montana Transit’s vans, two of which are ADA accessible — one with a loading lift.
The bays are a welcomed upgrade from their current parking lot.
“First of all, the vans will be protected from the weather so we won’t have to be scraping ice off of them and digging them out of the snow,” said Tony Aweeka who's a volunteer driver for Western Montana Transit.
The new transit center will not only be a place to store their vans but also be a place for the community to come and gather.
“We have office space for our dispatcher, our coordinator and then we have a couple of um, a community room that we’ll have available to the public as well,” Thibodeau told MTN.
The Lake County community that Western Montana Transit serves is the main driver behind the construction of the new transit center.
“A lot of people who are housebound. And as you know in Montana, if you don’t drive, you’re in big trouble. So it’s, it’s for them it’s a lifesaver really,” explained Aweeka. “You know in the past we, dealt mainly with older housebound people. But there are a lot of people who are disabled and younger and who just need a ride to the store.”
Construction is expected to take roughly nine months to a year so if you’re in the area, you can look forward to this new transit center rather soon.
