After a pandemic-hobbled start last year, Whitehall Public Transportation is making another push to offer free public transit services within Boulder and from Boulder to Helena and Butte.
Since 2011, Whitehall Public Transportation has offered free rides around Whitehall two days a week, picking up mostly elderly, disabled and low-income residents and ferrying them to go grocery shopping, pick up prescriptions, get lunch and, of course, get some ice cream, according to Paula Hippert, the service’s transportation manager. Whitehall residents can call to schedule a ride to Butte for medical appointments, too, she said. The service started when Whitehall’s senior center, unable to keep up with evolving regulations, donated its transportation vans to Liberty Place, a nonprofit that provides housing and rehabilitation for people with brain injuries. Hippert said that Whitehall Public Transportation is still a part of Liberty Place, which employs her and other transportation staff, including drivers.
“It’s for everybody, it’s public. The majority are elderly, disabled and low-income. But it’s for anybody,” Hippert said, stressing that “anybody and everybody is able to use the service. It’s for everyone.”
