As the community development director for Clinton, Chuck Bailey is in charge of transportation in the city, meaning ATS, the Area Transportation Service. ATS runs three white buses, which are dispatched on request to people’s homes, and will take them anywhere in the city limits for $1 one way. Two of the ATS buses have lifts to accommodate wheelchairs, but the buses are available for anyone to use.
The destinations that are most often requested by riders?
“The hospital, health clinics, dialysis and Walmart,” Chuck said.
ATS’s origins date back to 1972, when a local non-profit provided a station wagon to elderly residents of Camelot, according to Sherri Farmer. Sherri retired in mid-February after being a driver with ATS for 36 and half years.
Camelot was an affordable housing complex now known as KATY Trails Estates.
When she started in 1988, the ride service was still run by a local non-profit. The non-profit partnered with the city, Chuck said, which eventually took it over in 1995. ATS is now 50 percent funded by the Federal Transportation Authority, he said.
ATS will pick you up where you live, and take anyone anywhere they want to go in the Clinton city limits for one dollar, Chuck said. The advantage is the price. It’s not just for the elderly, or people with handicaps. Students take the ATS to private schools, working people to their jobs, and people who just want to get out of the house and go out for lunch. Cyclists in town to ride the KATY Trail also take advantage of the bus to get picked up and taken to restaurants.
“There are a lot of people who depend on the bus,” said David Nichols. “It gives people independence.”
Nichols has been a driver for ATS bus for six years, a job that has taken him“down a lot of goat trails,” he said, One time after a big snowfall, he was sent to a trailer park to pick up an elderly man. To get to the man’s door, he had to drive the bus between a steep drop-off and a culvert.
“There was no margin for error, but we got him,” he said.
Another time, he was sent to pick up a rider at a motel on the highway. The man, who had obviously outstayed his welcome, had all his belongings out in front of the building, and asked to be taken to Artesian Park. The ATS bus is supposed to take only passengers and what they can carry, but David accommodated the man, who unloaded his stuff at the park.
Sherri said she also had a rider who was waiting to be picked up by the bus with all her positions packed in pieces of luggage, expecting the bus to move her entire household.
Pets are another bone of contention — only service animals are allowed on the bus, Sherri said, but people often want to get on with their pets—small dogs, large dogs, even cats.
Dispatcher Chris Bridges said he gets calls from people who want to move to Clinton because they are no longer able to drive and need the service. One man was paying $32 one way to be taken to dialysis in town, David said, which he couldn’t afford, so was skipping some of his appointments. Once he got connected to ATS, he was able to make all his treatments, and eventually got off of them. People who are in physical or occupational rehabilitation often ride the ATS buses, David said, as do people going to optometrist appointments.
When Sherri started driving for the service, the charge was 75 cents, she said, and it’s only gone up a quarter. Now that she’s retired, it’s the people she misses —she has driven three generations, grandmothers, moms and kids.
ATS gives people free rides during Olde Glory Days, David said, dropping them off at the Chamber of Commerce depot to go to the parade, and ATS buses run until 10 p.m. during Olde Glory Days for people who want to attend evenings concerts.
Normally, ATS buses only operate on weekdays, Monday through Friday. Chris accepts calls from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and 12:30 p.m to 4:30 p.m. On busy days, they transport 50 people to and from their destinations, he said.
“It’s pretty unique,” David said. “The city should be proud to have this. We haul a lot of people to a lot of things.
He can put 100 miles on a bus in a day, he said.
There are very few rural, small transit providers left in the state, Chuck Bailey said, as most of them have been taken over by larger servers. Clinton is also served by OATS, whose buses will take you anywhere in the state, he said, including medical appointments in Lee’s Summit and Kansas City, and is subsidized by Medicare and Medicaid.
Clinton’s ATS owns two larger buses that hold 18 people each and have lifts for wheelchairs, and one smaller bus that holds 11 passengers, Chuck said. ATS usually runs two buses a day, and keeps one in reserve, at the bus barn in the Boy Scout building on Augusta.
Clinton Area Transportation Service has a Facebook page and the City of Clinton website has a whole page devoted to ATS —hours of operation, rules. etc. Clinton ATS picks you up at your Clinton residence and will take you anywhere within the Clinton city limits, and pick you up and take you home. To schedule a ride, call 660-885-3114.
