MI: Township near Ann Arbor trying to claw back $400K. Here’s what it would fund.

When Scio Township decided to dissolve its downtown development authority last summer, it meant the authority would have to return millions captured from Washtenaw County tax levies to the county coffers.

Now the township is asking the county to spend a total of $400,000 to save a bus route from Ann Arbor and provide the Dexter Senior Center with additional funding.

The county will be receiving an estimated $1,876,194 in returned township DDA funds.

On Tuesday, April 14, the Scio Township Board of Trustees voted to request the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners allocate $300,000 to keep TheRide’s bus route 30 service running between downtown Ann Arbor and the Meijer shopping plaza at Jackson and Zeeb roads.

More than 100 advocates called for keeping the bus route after the township began discussing potential changes to public transit services, including discontinuing route 30 west of Wagner Road.

A transit funding shortfall of about $240,000 due to rising costs of contracts with the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA) and the Western Washtenaw Area Value Express (WAVE) prompted talk of scaling back public transit.

“Route 30 is critical for the daily commute for both me and my partner,” township resident Zachary Keener wrote in one of the many correspondences the township received about saving the bus route.

“She uses it to go to work on the outskirts of West Ann Arbor and I use it daily Monday through Friday to return home from Blake Transit Center. This would severely impact us as well as others we know,” Keener said.

Other residents said they rely on the bus service because they do not own a vehicle or cannot drive. Some rely on it to get to medical appointments at a Trinity Health IHA Medical Group primary care. The Interfaith Hospitality Network’s Alpha House, a shelter for families facing homelessness, is also located on Jackson Road west of Wagner Road.

“Transit riders from Scio Township and across Washtenaw County use the Route 30 bus to access healthcare, employment ... education and other businesses/services,” according to the township’s resolution.

Township Treasurer Ryan Yaple introduced the resolution as a way to potentially keep the full bus route.

In addition, proceeds from the sale of a less than 1-acre parcel of township-owned land at 6540 Jackson Road will be placed into the transit fund.

The township’s Multimodal Transportation Committee is reviewing public transportation in the township and will make recommendations to the township board.

Scio Township will also asking the county board to allocate $100,000 in returned DDA funds to the Dexter Senior Center.

Anna Pekrul, the executive director of the Dexter Senior Center said she is “filled with gratitude” for the township’s advocacy.

“For so many years, senior centers really never received any attention in the grant world and just day to day conversation, so it’s just so exciting to me to see a group of elected officials taking what we do seriously and seeing the benefit of it,” Pekrul said.

Senior centers across the county are also each benefiting from $200,000 allocations from the county’s Older Persons Millage.

“The Dexter Senior Center’s remarkable growth shows a need for additional funding for services provided to the residents of Dexter, Dexter Township, Webster Township and Scio Township,” the approved resolution states.

Supervisor Jillian Kerry was the only township board member to vote against sending both funding requests to the county.

Kerry, who opposed dissolving the DDA, said the township should not have done so in the first place.

“I was in full support of keeping the DDA, but here we are,” Kerry said. “It’s almost as if we’re looking back and going, oh my God, we made a big mistake. And in my opinion, we did.”

While she supports the Dexter Senior Center, it is not located within the former DDA district, she said.

“The transit makes more sense to me,” because route 30 runs through the former DDA district, she said. “I’m still on the fence about even asking the county for that.”

Clerk Jessica Flintoft said the funding requests to the county are “a really good idea,” she said.

“We’re not usually very good at advocating for ourselves at the county, and this is good advocacy,” Flintoft said.

Trustee John Reiser said there is broad support for the senior center because it serves many people.

Reiser also supports keeping route 30.

“People go from Scio into Ann Arbor, or they live in Ann Arbor and they go to Scio for work and shopping,” Reiser said.

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