HAMPDEN, Maine — After months of discussion and debate, members of the Town Council voted 4-3 on Monday night to eliminate the Community Connector’s Saturday Hampden runs.
In favor of scrapping the Saturday service were Mayor David Ryder and council members Carol Duprey, Terry McAvoy and William Shakespeare. Councilors Dennis Marble, Greg Sirois and Stephen Wilde were opposed.
The last day of Saturday service for the Hampden bus, which runs from the bus transfer hub in Pickering Square in Bangor to downtown Hampden and back, will be Aug. 1, Bus Superintendent Laurie Linscott confirmed after the vote.
As it stands, there is no plan in place for serving those who use the Hampden bus on Saturdays.
During budget discussions last spring, town councilors discussed possible alternatives, including contractual arrangements with other transportation providers. Such a proposal, however, has yet to come to fruition.
Linscott said that the Community Connector is looking for ways to serve the part of the run within Bangor’s city limits but noted that Bangor’s budget, which took effect on July 1, does not include the funding needed to do that this year.
Monday night’s vote came after two required public hearings were conducted, one in Hampden and the other at City Hall in Bangor.
During the hearings, supporters of the Saturday run said they depend on it to get to work, run errands, shop and do a number of other things.
Opponents, however, said the weekend public bus service is too costly for the number of people using it and that Hampden taxpayers are footing the bill for a route located mostly in Bangor and used, they believe, largely by nonresidents.
Linscott said earlier that riders will be apprised of the change through public notices posted at the bus hub, in the buses themselves and on the Bangor Area Comprehensive Transportation System’s website at www.bactsmpo.org.