Jill Schramm/MDN Darrell Francis, Souris Basin Transportation executive director, speaks to the Minot City Council Monday.

Minot residents who rely on door-to-door bus service through Souris Basin Transportation will be able to keep that service at least through the end of this year.

The Minot City Council approved spending up to $300,000 from cash reserves to fund demand-response service from January through December. The city’s contract with Souris Basin Transportation (SBT) would otherwise expire July 1.

The City of Minot is facing changes with the transition from a rural classification to an urban classification in the federal funding system for transit. SBT has been using federal rural dollars to provide more than 60,000 annual, demand-response rides to the general public in Minot, typically elderly and low-income. It no longer can do so under federal rules.

SBT operates the demand-response service jointly with paratransit that it provides under a contract with the City of Minot. The city has paid $33,000 a year under that contract. As of July 1, people who are eligible for paratransit under the Americans with Disabilities Act must be certified to receive that door-to-door service. SBT estimates a contract to provide paratransit would cost the city about $107,000.

“This $300,000 that is being asked for tonight is not at all paratransit. That’s general public demand-response services,” City Transit Superintendent Brian Horinka told the council.

Although funding and expenses are uncertain as the transition from rural to urban occurs, he noted, “The transit development plan will give us a lot of direction once we get through the end of 2026. I think our focus right now really does need to be on managing the funding for the paratransit, helping Souris Basin manage the funding for the general public demand-response to keep that service in place.”

SBT provided an estimate of $261,000 that it would need from the city to get through this year. Darrell Francis, executive director for SBT, explained the funding request is not just for Minot but for the Metropolitan Planning Area that extends from Surrey to Eastside Estates to Burlington, because it also falls into the urban funding category.

He said the city’s share is only partial funding for the demand-response service because SBT plans to also use county mill levy money, state money and potentially a portion of a new legislative appropriation for nonfixed route bus systems. Speaking passionately about riders for whom the city’s fixed-route buses aren’t an option, he said he is doing everything he can but is limited by funding.

Council member Scott Samuelson voiced frustration with federal rules that don’t work at the local level.

“The feds decide that we set up our system the way they want it, whether it works for Minot or not,” he said. “Now we’re supposed to figure it out. Now we have to go through this process for one year, two years or three years till we figure it out. And what it does is it costs the citizens more and more money, and I don’t think we improve anything.”

Council member Mike Blessum asked how the $300,000 request from the city was arrived at. Francis responded with estimates of fares and other revenues, adding that it is difficult to calculate costs based on a formula when the operation is so new.

“I’m getting less confident in where we’re headed,” Blessum said. “We’re pretty much saying here, ‘We think it’ll be around this. So, go ahead and appropriate it, and we’ll wait to see the bills.'”

Council member Rob Fuller suggested giving SBT $42,000 a month for the next four months to then see how the data and costs are shaping up so funding can be more accurate going forward.

Francis called the plan workable.

However, the council proceeded with the original motion for up to $300,000, which passed unanimously.