City gives kids a free ride

Carson City youth will be mobile this summer when the city's first youth transportation system hits the streets.

The two-bus system begins ferrying youth about the city June 12 and is designed to get youth out of the house and to many local locations offering youth programs over the summer.

"Kids get stuck at home with nothing to do," Recreation Superintendent Barbara Singer said. "This will get kids out of their neighborhood, out of their home and out to do something positive in the summer months."

Two Carson City School District buses will roam the city, one on a north route hitting sites such as Mark Twain and Fritch elementary schools, Children's Museum, Boys and Girls Club and Western Nevada Community College. The other runs on a southerly route stopping at places like Seeliger and Freemont elementary schools, Carson High School, Eagle Valley Middle School, the Carson City Library, Community Center and the Boys and Girls Club. Both routes stop at a myriad of locations including different apartment complexes.

The rides are free and are offered only to children between 7 and 18 years old.

Buses begin run from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and will stop at different places at scheduled times. For a complete schedule of bus stops and times, call the Carson City Recreation office at 887-2290 ext. 100.

For youth service providers around the community, the new transit system is a program three years in the making.

The Community Council on Youth for about three years tried to start a youth transit system that would provide free rides to transport children to different activities.

The council on youth received $15,600 to fund the program three years ago from the Board of Supervisor's community grant program. A tangled bureaucratic process kept the council from contracting with someone to do the actual transportation. Recent legislative changes allowed the council to contract with the school district to provide the two buses for the summer.

"The first complaint you hear from anybody is there is no transportation in Carson City," Singer said. "This is a definite victory."

Singer will update supervisors on the program Thursday.

"It's been three years, and some of them weren't there when we got the money," Singer said. "This is just to kind of explain what we've done with the money."

The program is experimental and will be adjusted depending on how many children actually use the free service.

If you go:

What: Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting

When: Thursday, 8:30 a.m.

Where: the Community Center's Sierra Room, 851 E. William St.

For information on the youth transportation program call the Carson City Recreation Department at 887-2290 ext. 100.