Bus services at odds over pass route

WASILLA — A decision by the Mat-Su Assembly earlier this month has left one Valley nonprofit upset that another was awarded $180,000 to provide bus service to Hatcher Pass.

Moki Tew, the man behind the pink-striped Valley Mover buses, said he never had the opportunity to bid on providing bus service to the pass.

The way Tew sees it, Valley Mover runs fixed-route services and the company that got the contract, MASCOT, runs para-transit. Which is to say, Valley Mover has scheduled stops while MASCOT is on-demand for people who can’t transport themselves.

“That’s what happens in Anchorage, and it’s exactly what should happen here,” he said.

But the route up to Hatcher Pass is fixed-route service, Tew said, and Valley Mover would be the more logical choice.

Brad Sworts, transportation planner with the borough, said MASCOT was the company the borough initially had in mind when it drew up plans for the road because it was the only company offering bus service in the Valley.

When it came time for the borough assembly to actually award the contract, though, there were multiple companies available.

“I gave them the option,” Sworts said about the assembly. “I said you can go either direction with this, you can provide it to MACOT.”

The assembly chose to award the contract to MASCOT. Mayor Larry DeVilbiss disagreed with the assembly and tried to veto the decision to award the money to MASCOT without going through a bidding process. DeVilbiss reasoning mirrored Tew’s argument — the money should have been awarded through a competitive process.

The assembly overrode the veto, though. The few members who put their reasoning on the record seemed mostly to want to get service going as soon as possible.

The idea is for winter service to the borough’s Nordic ski trails, and there’s plenty of time before the snow flies, Tew said. He said he thinks he can do a good job for the borough and envisions a service that links up with his buses to Anchorage.

“I feel confident to say that there are a lot of mothers in Anchorage who would give their kids $10 to go to Hatcher Pass,” he said. “I’m not aware of a bus that goes to Alyeska.”

Sworts said that the reason the borough is getting into the transportation to Hatcher Pass game is that the road to access the ski area, and a transit facility at the top, is being built with Federal Transit Authority funds.

“My discussion through FTA, my understanding is they want the borough to begin transit service to the transit facilities that are being built up there and they felt like it was the borough’s obligation to pay for at least the first year or two of this service,” Sworts said.

After those two years, the borough wouldn’t be obliged to pay for busing. The federal government could step in to keep the service going. Sworts said he doesn’t think Valley Mover would be eligible for that federal money.

Tew said what upsets him most is that he has to raise so much heck just to get his opinion heard. He wasn’t allowed to testify on the matter before the borough voted on the award. Tew also said he feels like he’s being pitted against MASCOT. For the Valley to get a functioning transportation system, he said, it needs to conduct business more collegially.

“We all have to play nice in the sandbox,” Tew said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.