Public Transit In Rural Colo.: Demand Exceeds Supply

FORT MORGAN, CO — By Tina Griego for The Colorado Independent Sherry Jean Burrell lives in a small, clapboard home amid the corn fields amid the plains amid the vastness of northeastern Colorado. It’s about seven miles to the Walmart in Fort Morgan, and about eight to the town center. Brush is about two miles to the east.

Were you to divide the number of people in Morgan County by the number of square miles, you’d come up with about 22 people co-existing among the farms and ranches, the oil and gas operations, the meatpacking plant, the sugar beet processing plant, the cheese factory and the dairies that supply it. But most people live in town and the rest, like Burrell, are scattered. This elbow room has suited Burrell fine. She is living in her childhood home. It is not hard to summon the images of her mother at the stove, and, on summer nights, she can fall asleep to the rustle of corn stalks in the breeze.

Burrell was a waitress most of her working life, legs taking her where she needed to go, car taking her where her legs couldn’t. A few years ago, when she was in her late 60s, she developed lymphedema. Her legs and feet have swelled to the point that she can no longer drive. She needs special shoes, a walker, a wheelchair. She cannot fit into her daughter’s Toyota.

“It’s frustrating and very disheartening, you know,” Burrell says. “It’s like I lost my freedom, basically. Before I could go wherever I wanted and needed to.” Her voice drops, barely audible. “And now, I can’t.”

Burrell turned to the County Express, which, thanks to federal and state transit funding, Medicaid reimbursements, paying customers, and other donations, runs 62 shuttle buses and vans through the six counties that make up the northeastern corner of Colorado. Three bus hubs and a fixed-route line in Sterling cover a little more than 9,000 square miles.

It used to be that Burrell could call County Express, book an appointment for the following day to the grocery store or to go into town for lunch. A visit to her lymphedema specialist in Greeley took a little more planning, but it was doable. County Express would pick her up in one of the shuttle buses with a wheelchair lift. Sometimes there were other passengers. Most times there were not.

But, over the last couple years, the wait time has stretched from 24 hours to two days to three days to a week. Greater demand. Not enough buses. Not enough drivers. New management with a more strict adherence to the bottom line. Over time, the bottom line has demanded the gas-guzzling shuttle buses be sidelined during the summer when fuel prices are higher. Burrell came to dread the vans, which are harder for her to climb in and out of and tougher to ride because the seats are higher and deeper, with less room for her swollen legs.

“We can’t accommodate you,” has become a common refrain from dispatch, she says. One time, say Burrell and her daughter, Anita Webster, Burrell had to go to the hospital in Brush and when she called County Express for a ride home, they couldn’t schedule her in and so she stayed and waited an extra two days in the hospital until they could. Another time, Burrell says, she was feeling poorly and tried to schedule another ride to the hospital, but the wait would have been so long that she instead called for an ambulance.

“What is she supposed to do? County Express is her only means of transportation,” says Webster, who lives with her mom.

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Photo credits: Lead photo of County Express bus driver Brenda Peterson by Phil Cherner.

The Colorado Independent’s coverage of health equity issues is underwritten by LiveWell Colorado, a member of the Blueprint to End Hunger steering committee. In accordance with The Independent’s editorial independence policy, underwriters have no control over story selection or content.

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