PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 16, 2021
A long (AT TIMES, VERY STRANGE)
ride on Cherriots board
Feel -Good
STORY
Saluting the people that make
us proud of our community
presented by
Colleen Busch served as
Keizer's voice on the Salem
Area Mass Transit District
Board of Directors from
2015 until last month.
Photo by ERIC A. HOWALD of Keizertimes
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Colleen Busch embarked on a six-year
detour en route to becoming a member of
the Keizer Fire Board this month.
“When I decided to run for offi ce in
2015, I planned to run for the fi re board,
but then a couple people asked me if I
would be willing to serve on the Salem
Area Mass Transit District (SAMTD/
Cherriots) board,” Busch said.
She was elected to the Cherriots
board in 2015, re-elected in 2017 and then
received a gubernatorial appointment to
the board after the method of selecting
board members was changed in 2019. In
May, she was elected to the fi re board.
Mayor Cathy Clark and longtime
Keizerite Hersch Sangster, a former mem-
ber of the SAMTD board, asked Busch
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if she would run for the Cherriots role
instead of the fi re board and then served
as mentors and advisers once she was
seated. But, Busch dates her commitment
to service back much further.
“It probably began with Brownies and
Girl Scouts, but Rainbow Girls, which was
a program off ered by the Masons, was
also a big one,” she said. The International
Order of the Rainbow for Girls, is a
Masonic youth service organization.
She set her sights on the fi re board
because she’d already volunteered on the
Keizer Fire District’s budget committee
for years. Her husband, Bob, had volun-
teered as a fi refi ghter for more than two
decades.
When Busch changed tracks and
headed for Cherriots, there was a steep
learning curve and the transit district was
headed into tumultuous times.
“In the last board meeting before
I started my term, the previous board
decided to put a tax measure on the
ballot that would help restore week-
end services,” Busch said. The measure
proved highly controversial because of
the additional costs it would have placed
on businesses; it eventually failed at the
ballot box. Despite that early stumble,
Busch was committed to restoring at
least Saturday services in some of the
Cherriots system. Saturday routes had
been eliminated in the wake of The Great
Recession.
“Being on the board was a lot of learn-
ing how to connect with people and then
help them understand that a bus fare is
only a twelfth of what it cost to run the
bus,” Busch said.
As Cherriots struggled to make some
ends meet, Busch had a part in what
proved to be some signifi cant changes,
most of them had to do with rebranding
the service, but it included actions such
as approving on-bus advertising for the
fi rst time in the organization’s history.
The advertising helped cover the cost of
a discount on student fares.
“Those decisions had a big, positive
impact, and the brand did need refresh-
ing,” she said.
When the funding dams broke, it
always came in a rush. A statewide pay-
roll tax was passed to support transit sys-
tems and Cherriots allotment covered the
costs of Saturday routes.
Next summer, Cherriots' fi rst 10 elec-
tric buses will hit the street s– the result
of a successful grant request in 2020 and
additional money being sent to states as
part of COVID-19 relief.
COVID-19, and the ensuing, short-
term shutdown for public transit, was eas-
ily one of the most tumultuous times in
Busch’s tenure on the board. She showed
off a manilla folder stuff ed with COVID-
related emails and edicts.
“There were a few weeks when we had
changes being implemented hours after
the board was notifi ed. We had to shut
down service because we had drivers get-
ting sick,” Busch said. She still feels it was
the best decision the organization could
make given the circumstances.
Busch’s favorite aspect of the job
were times she got to spend with drivers,
whether it was riding on the routes and
talking with them, judging bus rodeos
or handing out awards for accident-free
service.
“We have some drivers who hav-
en’t gotten into an accident in the 25
years they’ve worked for us,” she said.
“Recognizing their hard work was the
best part of the job.”
Her biggest takeaway from the experi-
ence was the connections it takes to make
an organization like Cherriots successful.
As she departed the board in June, Busch
read a lengthy list of the connections she
made over the course of six years.
“Cherriots tagline is connecting peo-
ple with places, but that’s still connecting
people with people, and it takes so many
people to connect an organization like
Cherriots with the larger community,”
she said.
By STEVE BREEN
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