Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series examining layoffs at Matanuska-Susitna Community Transit.

MAT-SU — While management and labor may disagree about the cause of a recent 50 percent workforce reduction at Matanuska-Susitna Community Transit, the real losers of the layoffs are the riders.

From its beginning 10 years ago, MASCOT has been one of the few transportation options for the Valley’s less fortunate and disabled. With a total ridership in 2007 of just under 79,000, those without the will, capability or means to drive rely on the white buses to get to and from medical appointments and court dates, offices and grocery stores, Mat-Su College and Alaska Job Corps, executive director Lou Friend said.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman A Wasilla Senior Center employee helps and elderly gentleman onto a MASCOT bus Thursday.

“For a lot of people, we are their lifeline to the outside world,” Friend said.

Now, with the layoffs handed down on Sept. 11, the much needed service is in serious jeopardy. Six drivers, two mechanics and one office worker were let go to satisfy a $400,000 cut to MASCOT’s operational budget.

“Services will shrink,” Friend said. “We are decreasing the number of routes at a time when ridership continues to grow.”

This is bad news for Bettie Bumala.

Every Tuesday, the 81-year-old catches the 8:30 a.m., bus to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to work her 10 a.m. volunteer shift in the gift shop.

“I would like to protest the cuts to MASCOT,” Bumala said in the most sincere tone. “If they don’t have that service, I have to get a ride from my neighbor, who leaves at 5:30 a.m. I have to sit there until it’s time to begin work. It makes for a long day.”

Asked if she would quit volunteering if the bus no longer ran, she said, “Oh no. But there’s a big difference between 8:30 and 5:30.”

With the cuts, the mid-morning route to and from Anchorage Transit Center has been cut, leaving commuters with only one option in and out each morning and evening. What once were regularly scheduled stops and routes in Wasilla and Palmer are now only run on demand and require advanced notice. Service to Houston has been eliminated.

“We have one rider who uses MASCOT to get from Houston to Mat-Su College,” Friend said. “I have no idea what he’s going to do now.”

In addition to the individual riders who use the regularly scheduled routes or flag stop service, many Valley organizations have partnerships with MASCOT. Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. contracts MASCOT for door-to-door transportation for many of its residents. The Boys and Girls of Mat-Su uses MASCOT to get students to and from local schools. Patients rely on MASCOT to access Alaska Family Services, especially the behavioral health resource center. Off-campus students at Alaska Job Corps learn personal responsibility using the public transit service.

With the cuts, the future of these partnerships is grim.

Sondra Kaplan, executive director of Wasilla Area Seniors, is worried residents of the senior center will no longer get personalized service to their medical appointments. Relying on the regularly scheduled services means seniors will have to go several hours early and their fare waivers may no longer be accepted.

“There are some who can’t afford it. They are in pretty bad shape to begin with,” Kaplan said.

Word came in Wednesday to the Boys and Girls Club that MASCOT will no longer transport children from schools to their center before and after school, said director Howie Marks. Starting Monday, the club is responsible for its own transportation. The club has its own vans, Marks said, but they are running at capacity now. As a result, service to schools with smaller demand will necessarily be cut.

“I have to figure out how to work it for a week so we can give parents a little notice,” Marks said. “I’m a little disappointed they didn’t give us any more notice.”

Donn Bennice, CEO of Alaska Family Services, said his clients need MASCOT to access its services, especially the domestic violence shelter and the behavioral health resource center. These are clients who do not have any other means of transportation, he said. Any cut to MASCOT will create serious problems.

“They will kind of be stranded,” Bennice said. “We have vans available, but they are not for that purpose. The numbers are such that there is no way we could do it with our vans.”

Alaska Job Corps has been a MASCOT stop for three years, community liaison John Douglas said. Job Corps buys passes to hand out to students who do not live on campus. Taking public transit teaches them self-reliance and responsibility, Douglas said.

After talking to the operations manager, students coming from Anchorage will not be affected. However, cuts to Valley routes will force Job Corps to run its vans to Wasilla and Mat-Su College.

“We try to keep our class schedules as flexible as we can, but our students need to be here like they would for a job,” Douglas said. “It’s easier for a student to hop on a bus than for us to pay for the fuel and upkeep of a van.”

The United Way of Mat-Su, an organization that supports non-profits throughout the community, help found MASCOT 10 years ago, director Stephanie Allen said. Even before the cuts, United Way recognized the need for expanded transportation services in the Valley, she said. Now, with MASCOT moving in the wrong direction, it is time for the Valley to act.

“If they need to make cutbacks, we need to step up and engage our leaders,” Allen said. “It might be a great time to look at it, think in a very creative way not only now but going forward.”

However, Friend is less optimistic. A $400,000 grant would turn things around, but smaller donations will have little impact on the immediate future, he said.

“It’s possible to pick service back up,” Friend said, “but nothing is going to make a big difference right now.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.