BROOKINGS A new era is unfolding at Brookings Area Transit Authority as it settles into its new, and much larger, digs at 1313 Western Ave., the old location of Falcon Plastics.
We were fortunate. We were really looking for a building and we had applied for grants and never had anything come through that we were really awarded, BATA Executive Director Travis Bortnem said in a recent interview with the Brookings Register.
Its a search that had been underway for years, with occasional hopeful developments including a land offer from the city of Brookings and a possible partnership with the Brookings School District for a shared bus facility that never quite panned out. Perseverance paid dividends, though, along with good timing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when federal dollars were more readily available to help aspects of the nations economy better weather the pandemics impact.
When BATA zeroed in on the availability of the old Falcon Plastics site the company has since centralized its operations at 3300 Prince Drive in Brookings Bortnem said a phone call to the South Dakota Department of Transportation was in order.
Im like, Hey, do you happen to have any money? This is a good deal for us, Bortnem recalled. And theyre like, Let us look.
Lo and behold, money remained available. In the end, Bortnem said, the state DOT provided $2 million in federal grant money, via the Federal Transit Administration, allowing BATA to purchase the Falcon Plastics building and make plans for some necessary remodeling.
We couldnt pass it up, he said. Its good use of federal money. Is it going to be perfect for us? No. But for the cost-savings, its a no-brainer. It just works out for us.
The $2 million in federal funding required a 20% match from BATA, which added up to $400,000. Between the $1.6 million price tag for the building and remodeling costs to make it functional, which Bortnem aims to hold to under $900,000, its hoped BATAs overall bill will be contained to around $2.5 million.
BATA isnt seeking money from the Brookings community, either, for the new location and planned remodeling.
For the most part, people dont hear us asking for money, and I like to keep it that way, Bortnem said. It feels better for me. Were just a nonprofit out here trying to make it.
In a perfect world, he said BATA would have been able to build a new facility entirely but it isnt a perfect world and, more to the point, Bortnem said the difference between a new facility and what BATA has now at 1313 Western Ave. was in the ballpark of $8 million.
Theres some give-and-take here. Some of the stuff with the building isnt going to be perfect, but were buying an existing building, and we know that, he said. The community is very giving but when we start asking for money all the time, then sometimes I feel that, How good a job are we doing? Right? If we can keep from doing that, (then) when we do ask, they know were serious.
He added, Im kind of a penny-pincher sometimes Ive even been told Im a little too tight with the money. Running a nonprofit, as long as were doing a great job serving the people, you cant go wrong if you can save a little money.
Growth over the years
Bortnem said BATA has humble roots, so much so that, 18 or so years ago, it had maybe four buses along with a couple of drivers and dispatchers. Times have changed, though, in the intervening years BATA now has 26 vehicles, he said, and employs 35 to 37 people while providing 143,000 rides each year in Brookings alone.
Change had to come, and BATAs old location at 422 Western Ave. a garage on the site of a Brookings County Highway Department facility just wasnt cutting the mustard anymore. The development was kind of ironic, in the sense that when it was constructed in the early 2000s, it was thought it would be more than sufficient for BATA.
When they built that, they never thought they could fill the building up, Bortnem noted.
Well, that thought was put to rest soon enough. By the time Bortnem joined the BATA team 10 years ago, the transit agency was already parking buses outside the garage due to space limits.
He said the old garage could hold, crammed in super-tight, 16 vehicles at most. And while it currently remains under BATA ownership, it will likely only be used to wash vehicles and for temporary vehicle storage, with some sitting outside again. After all, planned work at BATAs new site tearing out some walls, installing some floor drains, that kind of thing means that at least some of the buses will have to go back to their old haunting ground for a while.
Its possible Brookings County might buy BATAs old garage, but that hasnt yet happened. If it does, Bortnem said funds from the sale would likely go toward BATAs vehicle needs.
The vehicle crunch right now is just stuff that nobodys ever seen before, he said. Youre waiting two years for a vehicle even if you have grant money for vehicles, you cant do it.
Commission Department Director Stacy Steffensen told the Brookings Register in recent phone call that the county has $775,000 socked away for a potential purchase. Before anything can be done, though, an appraisal process must be carried out to determine an estimated purchase price.
In with the new
BATAs new location also brings multiple improvements, including better vehicle housing, reducing preparation time to get the buses ready to roll each day and a more spacious environment for employees.
Really, its going to benefit us by allowing all our vehicles to be inside, Bortnem said. We live in South Dakota. Its cold. You have to scrape windows half the year you dont want a vehicle to go out half-frosted up for one, its illegal; two, we already deal with huge blind spots in those buses, so every window has to clear when we go. Thats probably the biggest thing.
Vehicles being inside is critical, because theyre used for seven to 10 years and up to 200,000 miles, so, as Bortnem noted, we need everything we can do to keep them as good as we can.
In the old garage on the highway department grounds, he said they had four people who had offices upstairs, and that it wasnt conducive to a good working area.
Everything was up and down, up and down, up and down, Bortnem said. It wasnt a great option for them. (Here), everybody is on the main floor, everybody has their own office.
On top of that, employees also have an actual breakroom now, with amenities such as a TV and a computer for them to use.
It adds up. You need places not everybody goes out on their lunch break, Bortnem said. It gives them a place to go sit down, relax (and) get their mind off of work.
Its just been nice to have just a few added things that we didnt have before, he concluded.
Bortnem said other opportunities may also arise from BATAs move, including possibly relocating the Jefferson Bus Lines stop, which currently picks up and drops off passengers at Cenex Zip Trip, 3045 Lefevre Drive, just east of Interstate 29.
That might be something that we look at bringing in-house here, Bortnem said. Whether or not they want to come off the interstate this far or not, I dont know.
Its not only Brookings that benefits from BATA, either. Other communities in the county are served as well including Elkton on occasion and Sinai once a week, but especially Aurora and Volga, where demand necessitates daily bus service.
Open enrollment is just huge, Bortnem said of the six to seven daily runs to and from Volga, which involve a lot of children.
In the end, while the old Falcon Plastics site has a new lease on life with BATAs move into it, its not the building that ultimately determines whether a venture is successful or not.
A building doesnt make what we do any better, Bortnem said. eah, we dispatch out of the building and we do all the finances out of the building, but the real work happens out on the streets.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
Leave a Reply