{"id":12470,"date":"2016-11-23T09:03:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T17:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/bethel-weighs-shutting-down-bus-system\/"},"modified":"2016-11-23T09:03:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T17:03:19","slug":"bethel-weighs-shutting-down-bus-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/bethel-weighs-shutting-down-bus-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethel weighs shutting down bus system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BETHEL \u2014<\/strong> The city of Bethel may put an end to its public transportation system due to low ridership and high expenses.<\/p>\n<p>KYUK-AM reported officials are conducting a termination study to determine if a closure would cost the city money in employee retirement benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Funding for Bethel\u2019s transportation system has dwindled in recent years. The Orutsararmuit Native Council previously had covered some of the bus costs through a partnership with the city, but that funding has decreased.<\/p>\n<p>Acting City Manager Pete Williams said at a recent City Council meeting that the transportation system isn\u2019t generating much revenue for Bethel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou should have some expenditures showing, and you should have some revenue showing, and all I see is expenditures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Williams said he\u2019s deciding on whether to accept more grants to support bus costs, which the city would have to match, or to shut the system down entirely.<\/p>\n<p>But ending public transportation in the area is a concern for Megan Zickl, who works at the domestic violence shelter, Tundra Women\u2019s Coalition. Women who come to the shelter rely on the buses not only to get around, but to escape in the event of a domestic violence situation, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDomestic violence obviously has everything to do with control over another person. So when someone is finally able to get out of that controlling relationship and be in a place where they can now control their situation and their life choices, that\u2019s very empowering. The bus system plays into that to the extent that women can choose to go places they need to go without relying on somebody else,\u201d Zickl said.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how long the city will take to decide the future of the bus system. But John Sargent, Bethel\u2019s grant writer who helped get the bus system into operation, said the decision shouldn\u2019t weigh entirely on money, because cities across the state are experiencing the same problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make revenue; there\u2019s no bus system in Alaska that makes money. They all run on a cost basis,\u201d Sargent said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BETHEL \u2014 The city of Bethel may put an end to its public transportation system due to low ridership and high expenses. KYUK-AM reported officials are conducting a termination study to determine if a closure would cost the city money in employee retirement benefits. Funding for Bethel\u2019s transportation system has dwindled in recent years. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12470"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}