Mobility, Independence, and Rural Transit with Gary Clark | WKRP Montrose

[00:00:00] Welcome to WKRP Montrose, a radio station masquerading as a podcast about Montrose, Colorado and the Western Slope. Recording live from the Clear Network Studio in downtown Montrose, Colorado. Alright everybody, welcome to another episode of WKRP. What are you doing? I'm making sure that the TV is on mute. What are you doing? I can hear it. Right. Can you still hear it? You messed up. No, I didn't mess up. It's done. I was supposed to do that before.

[00:00:28] Why do you... Dude, great opening. That's alright. They're used to it by now. Are they? Yep. You know what? Do you guys have somebody in your life that critiques like everything you do and everything that they critique is not something that they ever participate in? Is that something that happens to other people? Is that only like... This is not about you. Oh, that's true. It is not. You know who it is about though. Yeah. It is about Clear Networks and the Clear Network Studio.

[00:00:56] Yeah. You've got the branding on. Always. A big thank you to them. Everybody, all the guys over there. Girl, ladies, women, men. They have... Casey, Sarah, Abby, Doug. Doug especially. The whole team. El Jefe. El Jefe. Yeah. They've been our sponsor and our big supporter since day one. Since the very beginning. So much so that they've influenced other people to make the same mistake. Oh yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Who?

[00:01:22] Like New Vista where you're more than just an account number? Yeah. Yeah. Who else? We like those guys. Who else? Flower Motor. Yep. I need to talk to them about my car. I think it might be time for a new one. You should talk to them about your car. Go get a new car from them. Tell them we sent you. Yeah. That might help. Yeah. And then, and this is something that I'm definitely looking forward to, is at last a solar. We've got a lot of sunlight here in Montrose. Why let it go to waste?

[00:01:52] Exactly. Get some solar power in your household these days. Hey, the way things are going around the world, solar might be the only way forward. I can't afford the fuel prices. No. It's getting a little hefty out there. Yeah, exactly. Hefty, hefty, hefty. And I think we have another, another underwriter coming on board soon, which we'll announce, but. There is a possibility.

[00:02:13] If you would like to be part of our expansion plans to turn WKRP into a kind of a community hub, a community TV station with lots of contributors, get in touch. We have opportunities for you to give us money. Speaking of fuel, because I know you guys are saying, and we're going to get to the guest because I know that you guys are just waiting. I know. But the, you know, a way to avoid fuel prices is going to be our next guest. This is kind of a rubbish segue, but never mind. It's not bad.

[00:02:43] Yeah. But I did promise you guys that I would do a fuel card giveaway. And so I'm going to do that. And here's the deal. You have to tell me who is going to start creating new content for WKRP. We have mentioned this. It's been in a past episode. But if you leave it in a comment down below, we'll get you a different way. And if you are that person, you can't do this. Yeah. You can't answer it. You can't answer the question. So. Or anybody related to you either. That should be. Yeah, Ben. Okay. Okay. But now.

[00:03:13] That nonsense is that. Without further ado. Yeah. Yeah. We want to introduce Gary Clark, the director of All Points Transit. Is that correct, Gary? Yes. I got you all set up there. Yeah, that's correct. Correct. So we're going to get to All Points and we're going to talk about where All Points is and how maybe some of this fuel cost is affecting you guys as well with your program. But before we do that, we got to get to know you first. And the most that I could find is that you're from Grand Junction? Yeah, I grew up in that area.

[00:03:43] Okay. And you made it your way over here. That's not a long commute. Normally we're talking about people coming from other states. But what got you to defect from Grand Junction over here to Montrose? Family. Wife at the time, she was a native from here. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So when was that? Give us a time frame of you grew up in Grand Junction. Uh-huh. Did you leave? I did, yeah. Left Grand Junction. Went to, you know, graduated high school from Palisade High School.

[00:04:12] And then I lived in Denver for a little while. Went on a two-year church mission to Santiago, Chile. Okay. You know, convenient. Learned Spanish. Yep. And then, you know, came home, got married. And like I said, she was a Montrose girl. And we were here for, started in Grand Junction for a while. And then we were here for a couple of years, you know, about two decades ago. And then moved away for about three, four years. Came back.

[00:04:42] And it's been about 12, 13 years now I've been back. So I love it. I mean, it's home. I was going to say, after that long, it sounds like you're not going anywhere. No. You're Colorado for good. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Colorado boy all day long, no matter what they do. You worked for, you worked with an organization over there that was a friend of mine. You worked for CART. I did, yeah. You know Aaron? Yeah. Yeah, I've been friends with Aaron for years. I mean, we, I knew each other. I knew him long before I ever worked for him, actually. Okay. Yeah.

[00:05:09] We had a, I wonder if the timelines overlapped, but you know, we had a start, I had a startup with a couple of other locals called Proximity and Proximity Space. And we had a co-working space in one of his buildings. Yep. Over there before you guys moved to the big, nice building that he's got down on Main Street now. All right. Well, what took you from, I mean, cause that's, CART is a, you might help me explain CART a little bit better than I can do it. Yeah.

[00:05:36] It's well, they, they, they manipulate and make and fix maps on openstreetmap.org, which is free for anyone to get on, of course, and edit. But we used to actually travel to various countries all over the world. We would drive it. One person be on an iPad, editing the map, telling the driver where to go. And then the driver, of course, just goes wherever he's told. And then we'd be fixing one way street names, all that, all the while recording, you know,

[00:06:04] footage of the street signs, points of interest, businesses, that kind of thing. So it was fun. I mean, I've through that, I've been through, I've been to over 27 countries and I was mostly all for work. Really? Yeah. It doesn't suck. It was fun. So now are these the cars that have like the cameras set up on them and everything that, you know, they're pointed all different directions. Not as fancy as a Google car, but you know, we just, we just had little, like they're, they were little Garmin cameras look like GoPros. Okay. Yeah. All right. Still very cool. Yeah, it was fun. All right.

[00:06:33] So that then did directly from that, did you come here? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Not to all points transit, right? Yeah. I came back, I, I, after I left card, I kind of ran my own business for about half a year before I realized that doesn't make any money or that particular business didn't make any money. I was, I was repairing cell phones, iPads, that kind of thing. Okay. And then, yeah.

[00:06:59] And then I came across all points and met with board members and yeah, the rest is history. Wow. So you kind of jumped around a bit in terms of the industries. Yeah. Um, what, so what, I mean, what led you to, to all points? I mean, there was an opportunity there and obviously, you know, you were looking for something at the time, right? But how long have you been with all points? Uh, I'm going on three years. All right. So that's significant enough. Now you're kind of embedded. Yeah.

[00:07:28] In the organization. But yeah. What, um, yeah. What, cause I mean, trans, transportation in, you know, rural America is, uh, it's not amazing and often there's nothing in some places. It barely exists. Yeah. I mean, give us an overview then of just how important it is for the community first. And, and you know what, let's start with just in case there are one or two people out there who don't know what all points is, tell us what it is.

[00:07:55] And then, you know, let us know like how important it is to, to, to the community. Sure. Uh, yeah. All points is we, it started out around 40 years ago, uh, around people who needed to, um, to, to get around, you know, it was focused at the time around mostly senior citizens, those who, um, you know, could no longer drive or had limitations in that regard. Uh, they still need to get places and not all of them have family around to, to get them there.

[00:08:23] So the nonprofit all points, um, kind of started by, by a group of folks getting together and giving these people rides. They, and then they finally, uh, they officially incorporated it into a nonprofit. And that was kind of the, the basis of our business for, well, the better part of four decades, really. So initially though, just to be clear though, were the initial founders like using their own vehicles? You know, I, I don't know, actually, that's a good question, but I think they were doing something like that.

[00:08:52] And I don't, I don't think they had official company vehicles until they actually became a nonprofit, probably had some donations, things like that. So, but do you guys feel like, I guess one of the questions that I had is on points transit. I feel like when I talk to people, they either don't know what it is. They've never heard of it or they confuse it for the initial service that the company was.

[00:09:16] And it's a very different, you know, nonprofit now than it was as it started is, I mean, most people that I talked to, if they know about it, confuse it with just being a service for senior citizens. That's not the case anymore. Yeah. And that's, that is a very common perception. And honestly, since I've been here from day one, it's been my, it's been one of my objectives to update that perception.

[00:09:41] I still want the, I still want people who need it, you know, regardless of your demographic to use the service. So I don't want people to think, Hey, we're going away from, you know, senior citizens only. We're not, you know, we're, we're still taking care of those folks there. I mean, it's, we, that's, that's our roots. That's, that's what we're here for. Right. But you've uncovered a bigger need. A much bigger need. And particularly, I would say one of the things that I think is really cool is the local route.

[00:10:06] Um, you know, not being, we have a lot of great assets for the youth in this area, but they aren't necessarily centralized. Right. And even though there's a great river path that's been created, you know, some of those destinations are better gotten to with a vehicle and, uh, things like boys and the boys and girls club. Yeah. Right. There are the things, the rec center itself is kind of quote unquote out of town for Montrose. It's not in the downtown core.

[00:10:34] Um, but I want to just go back briefly there to talk about the senior citizen and stuff like that, because it's, I think it's really important that, that you offer that because they are the people who kind of contend to fall through the cracks, right? They get kind of, they're not the primary kind of component of our, of our community. They get forgotten. They get forgotten. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what, what would you do if there was no all points and you need

[00:11:04] to get to the doctor and you don't have family. I mean, and with the more you narrow it down to, you know, senior citizens that can't drive and don't have family. I mean, perhaps we're not talking about a huge number of people, but one person like left behind is, is too many. Right. Yeah. And we, I mean, really, we, we are talking about a pretty big number of people. I mean, right now that's so that the service that, that, that helps those who can't get

[00:11:31] around for themselves like that and does the, with the door to door service we have, right. That's called dial a ride. Um, and that one is, um, I mean, we're, we're consistently booked out two to three weeks. If you don't call and book your appointment two to three weeks in advance, it's, there's a chance you're not going to get the appointment because you know, we're busy. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of folks who need it. Yeah. What, um, so what do you have vehicles then for dial a ride too? We do. Yep. And so you're still that, how many do you have? Yeah. How big is the entire fleet?

[00:12:01] Right now we're running 33 vehicles. So you can still be booked out for weeks in advance. So that, that really there, you can just crunch those numbers and see what the need in our community is. And it's also, it's interesting because, you know, Montrose is to a certain degree, um, uh, appealing as a retirement community, but those people come in and they, they've been, they're still relatively youthful, I guess, a lot of them.

[00:12:26] And, you know, we welcome them into the community, but then when you get older and you become more reliant on other people, that's, I guess, when they start to get forgotten and left behind. Right. And if they don't have a, a, a big network of friends through church or whatever, whatever other activities they might do, they do get left behind. I mean, I've got this, uh, this amazing neighbor and she's in that scenario where within the

[00:12:53] last couple of years, her, her kids kind of had to jump in and say, Hey, your vision's just getting too bad to drive. And so, you know, I told them about our service, told her about their service. She's one of the lucky ones though, who has a lot of friends who get her around and, and people who can help her. But that, that's, it's more rare than it is the norm. Right. It's more of the exception. So, I mean, most of these folks, they're, yeah, they're, they're homeward. Well, I guess homeward bound or stuck, whatever you want to say. Yeah.

[00:13:23] But they, um, yeah, they, they have no other resource. And to a lot of these people, we are their only, uh, human interaction to some level. And I suppose you also, do you serve, you know, people with disabilities and things like that too? Yes. For the same reason, essentially they need to get around too, right? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's for anybody and everybody who can't get around on their own, who can't drive a car. One of our most popular stops is the, the justice center, you know, a lot of folks going down

[00:13:53] there don't have their license or are restricted or whatever. Right. So, I mean, it's, it's, again, it's, it was built in initially around helping older adults, but now it's, it's, it's always been intended for everybody, but that's kind of what it was built on. Right. And again, I mean, that's, I guess that's another component of if you don't have a license for whatever reason, um, you still need to get to work because then, you know, if you can't get to work and you maybe lose your job, then, you know, problems can, can compound

[00:14:22] and the reasons why people don't have licenses vary. Yeah. I mean, it's not, it's not for us to judge people. Right. Right. But they still need to get around. They still need, they're part of our community. They work the jobs in town. And so it's really important, but so you've got those, but Dennis alluded earlier to the fact that you kind of, you have some new initiatives. I don't know. First and foremost, I wanted to talk about, you've got several routes now that go around

[00:14:50] in and around the area and then you've got different types of services. We do. Yeah. And let me, if you, if, if I can, I'll just kind of lay those out real quick and if you have questions on that, let me know. But, uh, so it started sometime around, I want to say about a decade ago, uh, when, um, we, we opened up a public bus route. Actually at the time, I believe there were three or four routes. Um, right. And that was where, I mean, just like you see the blue buses going around town.

[00:15:16] Um, those, they function essentially just like a public bus. Right. Um, you get on, you pay whatever the fare is or was. And right now it's a buck 50 a ride one way. Uh, and that's easy. It's a fixed route. It'll just take you on the various stops along the way, which right now gets you to most parts around town. Um, when you say most, most parts, I'll just say a couple of these.

[00:15:41] Like you said, you mentioned the justice center, Walmart, target, uh, city market, commute, the community rec center. Uh, where else is here? Commercial way at new Vista is a pickup. Shout out to them. Um, so you've got, you've got downtown locations, you know, covered as well. Yeah. It does seem like you can get from one end of the town to the other at $1 50 for one way ride. Okay. Or you get it's three bucks for a day pass and it's unlimited that whole day for you.

[00:16:12] Okay. Is there, is there any, can you buy like an annual bus pass or anything like that? We have punch passes. We found those to be more cost effective for people because, you know, we had people who would buy, you know, a, a one month, three month pass, whatever. And it wasn't justified cost wise because you, you, you would maximum you could ride was about 20 days a month. Right. So we have 20 punch passes. So if you end up not using a day, well, it just carries into the next month until you use them all up.

[00:16:41] So it saves people money and it simplifies things to, you know, we, cause we do, we have a lot of people who it's, it's a really cool community to be in. I love it. I mean, I, I feel incredibly lucky to be working not only with the people I work with, but also for the people that we offer the service to, uh, you know, there's, um, like, for example,

[00:17:05] there was a principal of one of the schools who came in last year and he was buying bus passes for students who were in need. And he was, I was out of his own pocket. You know, he wasn't, uh, he wasn't using school money or anything. He just wanted to help these kids. And we run into that type of scenario all the time. Do you, I was going to ask you this cause you're a father of three, right? You got three kids of your own. Um, is this a good service to, for, for like, for your kids to be able to use? Yeah.

[00:17:32] Like, you know, if you're kind of, especially in that in-between age, you're not quite driving yet. You're, you're, you know, old enough to, to kind of be able to go do, if you were going to let your kid ride a bike to the other end of town, is this, is this a good alternative? It is. And, and actually we, uh, it's funny. We, my, my daughter, my, my second oldest was really big into dance working with Weehawken. Um, and there was a day she had to get to rehearsals. And I mean, you know, those rehearsals, especially up before our performance, I mean, they're middle of the day.

[00:18:03] It's hard for parents to get away. And just, I was commuting in Grand Junction at the time. So it didn't work that she didn't have a ride to the field house. So, um, I told her at the time, I said, Hey, um, ride the bus. We have a bus. Yeah, we do. Got on the website, showed her the routes and said, here's what you do. You just go stand right here, wait for the bus to come. And if you need to flag them down, whatever I said, but you know, you give them this cash and they'll take you down there. And she loved it.

[00:18:32] I mean, she was terrified of course. And most kids are their first time they ride. I mean, it's, it's new, especially here. It's new. I mean, it's not like New York where kids grow up and that's just how you get around. Right. So, um, so it's scary. But after that, it really changed her perspective. Did the same thing with my second daughter after I started here, uh, summertime, didn't have a whole lot going on. She's bored. She says, Hey, um, any chance, like how, I want to go to target with my friend and this. And I said, well, ride the bus. And she was scared.

[00:19:00] So I, I, I, I gave her a map and I said, here, and exactly, this is how you do it. Yeah. You know? Um, it's just intimidating the first time when you don't know the route, you don't know what's going on. Yeah. And so, right. And after, after she did that first time, she went with her friend. They had such a great time on the bus with the driver and everybody that like now she, she in the summertime, she's constantly asking, Hey, can I just go to target? Yep. Knock yourself out. Go. And she knows, and she just hops on the bus and goes and she loves it.

[00:19:29] So what, I mean, that first time is scary because you don't know what to expect. Am I going to end up on the other side of town and not know how to get home? Like, yeah, it's scary. I've done, I mean, I've done that in, in other countries, um, in places like China where you can't communicate and you don't know where you're going really. And you hope for the best. And I've been intimidated by getting on buses. I'm wondering, am I going to end up, you know, in a, in a city or a town that I, that I don't know, but you didn't intend on going. But I do think that's part of the adventure. It is part of the adventure. Yeah.

[00:19:59] But I think it's also, it might not seem like it perhaps, but I think this kind of thing, like using the bus, like their life skills, you, you have to interact with the public. You have to be somewhat aware of what's going on. So you do get off at the right place. So I think all of these little things can really, can really, you know, help build character for sure. They do. And they, they give you independence and that's, and frankly, that's one of our primary objectives for everybody. And no matter what the service is, is independence.

[00:20:29] And with that segue too, we have, so we have two other services that we offer now. Um, one of them is kind of a commuter route. It's a, it's a public bus, kind of the same way, uh, that the public bus in Montrose works, but that's called the mod express mod M O D Montrose, Olathe Delta. It takes you from Montrose to Delta and back, and it just runs all day long Monday through Friday. Um, so that's, that's our commuter route.

[00:20:53] And then, uh, we also have, uh, our, our micro transit, which we recently released. Uh, and that's most likely the one you used to the airport. Did you download the app for it? I downloaded the app. I, you know, just, just, it works almost exactly like Lyft or Uber. Yep. Uh, you basically just put in cheaper, not even, let's just go ahead and throw it out there. It's, it was $3 for the ride. Yeah. Um, and that was from your house.

[00:21:20] It was from my house, which we won't say exactly where it is all the way across town, but it was across town. Uh, but it was within the, cause you, you, you see the, uh, designated area that the, the, the, the cars can go. Uh, you see the map basically. And so you can know whether or not your end destination is outside of where the route can go. Uh, but yeah, you, other than that, it's exactly like Lyft and Uber. You, I put where I was, I put where I wanted to go. You can see where the van was coming, right?

[00:21:48] I could see the vehicle, uh, coming. Uh, I will say this, the first time I used it, I thought, Oh, this is fantastic. I'm going to use this every time I need it. The second time that I tried to use it, it was, uh, so the first time I tried to use it, put in my destination, typical, like, you know, eight, nine minutes, it'll be there. So all the, the, the driver, driver was super nice by the way too. So I'm a, I'm assuming that you guys do some interview process with your drivers and everything,

[00:22:17] background checks and whatever that may be needed. But my driver at the time, I think I could, can I say her name? Dakota was her name. She was fantastic. Um, second time, same experience, like easy to do, easy to figure out much longer waiting time. Yeah. I'm assuming because time of day, time of week, it was, it was probably just a busier time. So how, I want to, how do you, how do you guys plan on dealing with it being a success?

[00:22:45] So apparently already some of the word is already out. Oh yeah. I mean, and the best marketing anybody knows is always word of mouth, right? And that's what's happened with the microtransit service. So that the service first off, it's called all points go. And that's also the name of the app and it's available both, you know, iOS and Android play store. Uh, you, you just download the all points go app. It's a free account to sign up for. And when you need a ride, you just get on book it. Boom. Uh, like you said, and especially in the very beginning, I mean, you could book a ride in the, the van's there within five, 10 minutes.

[00:23:14] I mean, it was fast, right? Uh, as demand has grown, of course, um, that it's become higher and higher demand and we're getting, we're getting just booked up. Right. And like you said, I, you said 68 minutes, right? That's a long time to wait. I mean, and again, it's still something we encourage people to, we always tell people to give, give it at least, give yourself at least a lead time of two hours. Right. It's a crap load better than the, uh, two weeks, three weeks.

[00:23:41] Can you, um, can you book appointments, um, book pickups in advance as opposed to just kind of going on and cause it, so that would have solved your problem. Right. I guess, I guess I didn't see that part. I mean, cause Uber has that too. You can schedule a ride before you actually need it. Yeah. Um, and I, I believe, I don't remember the window we set. I want to say it's, it's between 24, 48 hours before your trip. You can, you can get on and book. Okay. There is a limit to how far out it will go. Yeah.

[00:24:09] Um, but it, yeah, it is within, within a day or two. So let me have one more question though. So are the people who drive, um, for the, the, the microservice, are they employees or how does that work? Or are they, is it like Uber? You kind of have a contract with them, but they use their own vehicles. No. So we have, we has, we have a designated, a couple of designated, um, microtransit vehicles. Okay. And again, that's what's called microtransit.

[00:24:34] But it's, uh, uh, the one that you'll mostly see, it's a Toyota Sienna fairly new and it's an ADA accessible van. Okay. So part of the, part of the purpose, I should say that the purpose of microtransit is to make it easy for people to get to the bus system. Right. So the, the way it's supposed to work ultimately, and we'll work like this sometimes is we would pick you up from your house. We would bring you to the nearest bus stop to get you onto the bus system, which would then take you to the airport. Okay.

[00:25:03] Right now we're doing kind of door to door because we haven't been so busy that that's been necessary, but we are kind of getting to that point. Now, secondly, uh, the, the second service we're working with is our dialer ride service. We're, we're revamping how we do that. So that the dialer ride will, um, it's, it's going to become exclusively for those with, uh, ADA needs. So those in wheelchairs, walkers, people who can't just easily get around on their own, right.

[00:25:33] Or who couldn't just walk to the public bus stop. Right. So that's going to be exclusively for those folks. What that's going to do is it's going to free up a lot of that space that's on dialer ride right now. And then the people who are ambulatory and can walk without that assistance or whatever, um, they'll be able to book a microtransit ride. Right. Um, now once we get transitioned over and really we're just waiting on some software to be finished up right now to get that fully going. And we're very close. Yeah.

[00:26:00] Once that gets transitioned over, we'll move a lot of our, our dialer ride vehicles over to, uh, the microtransit. So then it's going to alleviate the issue you're talking about. I mean, obviously we'll have more people using it because of the switch, but it'll also just free up a lot more. It'll make it a lot more flexible. Right. I realize I'm not the focus group for, for that service. No, but I'm glad you used it. Honestly, it gives you a good first person perspective. But I knew you were coming on and I wanted to try it so that I could talk about it. There you go.

[00:26:28] And, um, I think it's a great, you know, I think it's a, a great thing for our community to consider as well. But it's evolving still, it's still, and I guess it kind of constantly will continue to evolve, um, as you know, needs change and, and things like that. But it sounds like, you know, you, you're working on giving more people in the community access. There we are. And, and I will say there's, there's two other services I haven't quite mentioned yet that we've launched since, since I came on board.

[00:26:56] Um, we launched the Uray service, uh, the van it's, it says our way pronunciation, I think was supposed to be like your way, right. You know, but spelling and whatnot. Yeah. It looks like your way, your way, your way. Yeah. But people, people will know that even if they know it because they go, well, what does that say? But people have seen that, that bus or buses, how many are there? It's white with purple. You got it. You've seen it. Yep. Yeah. You've seen it. It's a transit van and it goes from Montrose to Uray. Um, we're working right now.

[00:27:26] That one, it, a lot of these programs are pilot programs. And so we're, we're kind of changing as we go. That one has changed a lot since its inception in March of 24. Right. Um, and we're right now we're looking at probably making some additional changes, just, just trying to get the schedule right so that we can accommodate as many people as possible. Right. But we also want to leave it as consistent as possible so people know they can count on it. Right. So, um, that one's been a great service.

[00:27:52] And the other one we, we launched, uh, last year was the Delta dash and that's a single bus and it runs a, it runs a loop around Delta. Delta, just like, here I am smoking it. We, um, it, it, it runs a loop around, uh, Delta just like the Montrose buses do. It has a single, single route, but that one has been heavily, um, just accepted. People out there have loved it. It's made a huge difference for people in Delta. Yeah.

[00:28:18] I think I would imagine that in Delta, it being a brand new service, people understand it. I still think part of the reason why it's not better adopted here is that people see the buses, but think that's not for me. Right. You know? And so I'm, one of the reasons we wanted to have you here is to clarify that it is, you do want more public interaction on the buses. Um, you want to continue to be successful. I want to come back to all of the programs with all points, but I want to continue to get to know you as well.

[00:28:48] Mostly because there were some interesting things that I found. Uh, one of the, one of which is you got kicked off of Facebook. Yeah, I did. How did, how did, how did that happen? I, you know, I don't know. I, I, my only theory is that they had some quota to hit, you know, and it was just like, it was like, it's 20 is 2020, I believe right at the beginning of the year, right. Right. When all the election stuff was happening and everyone was kind of freaking out. Right. And so, so that, and right when you actually need a social media platform. Right. Yeah.

[00:29:18] And, and the thing is like, I never posted anything political, at least they hadn't for a few years. Right. Um, I, I just posted stuff about my family and then, and one day I get on, it's beginning of January. I go log on and it's like, Oh, your account's been deleted. And it's like, I'm like, okay, why? I try to go in and dispute it or whatever. And they said for violation of our terms. And I'm like, right. Do you want to tell me what I violated? I'd love to see it. Cause I, but nobody ever reads the terms first and foremost. Right. Right.

[00:29:45] But I mean, even then I'm like, I'm not doing anything that would really violate any terms, you know, but. So I have a theory. I have a theory about why you got kicked off. Yeah. I think, I think this got you kicked off. I think this got you kicked off. No, no, that was after the fact. So, uh, you're a yodeler. I do yodel. Yeah. Okay. Was this for the, uh, your event? This is for Oktoberfest. Okay. Okay. Let's not skip over the fact that you, you can yodel. Hey, where did you learn to yodel? In my car. In your car.

[00:30:15] Yeah. Right. But actual. You're a self-taught yodeler. Right. You might be the only one in this on the Western slope for sure. So, but you know what happens next, right? Right. You know. Are we good? I got, I'll give you a little volume control if you want, but you have to. Shoot. Yeah. Do you need a warmup? I'm trying to think of what I, I said, uh, oh yeah, shoot. I don't have any music prep for it. I don't have to help you out. I mean, I don't know. That was pretty good. That wasn't a bad thing. Yeah. I'll usually sing like a whole song.

[00:30:43] I was actually singing a song for Oktoberfest on that one. Okay. Now, if it wasn't that one, I got a feeling, you know, you've, you've had a, uh, I guess a passion for vehicles for, for quite some time because there's this image that I found. That's my guy right there. Was this your, uh, your original set of wheels that you were? Yep. Were you, were you selling newspapers? What is, what's going on with the shirt, short sleeve tie combination here? I think it was probably like a Sunday after church. Yeah.

[00:31:14] So you just drove out into the Adobe's to do a photo shoot? Well, I grew up, so I grew up not far from there. That's up Lanzan Road, um, out by Whitewater, not, not far from there. Um, and so it was awesome. Good place to grow up out in the country. But yeah, I, I'm sitting, uh, I'm sitting at church one Sunday and there's a, we're talking with one of the leaders there and there was a couple of other kids my age and we were just kind of hanging out, ditching the main, main, main meeting. Uh, and I, I'm talking to this guy and we're, everyone's being a bunch of dorks talking about

[00:31:42] how big their engine is in their truck or whatever. And, uh, and the guy's like, well, I got a, I got a Buick Riviera with a 455 in it. And I said, that's a car. And he's like, yeah, just been sitting in my house for two years. And I said, well, are you going to sell it to me? He said, sure. 500 bucks. I'm like, sweet. You know? And, uh, and away you went. Oh yeah. I mean, and I'm not even exaggerating when I say I got six miles to the gallon. I mean, in, in the late nineties, I was still paying 20 bucks every two days in gas, but I didn't care. It was worth it. Do you still have it?

[00:32:11] No, unfortunately that thing was, I miss it though. I was a beast. No, because I'm going to guess that you have a Toyota. Would it be correct? You would be correct. I love Toyotas. Um, actually my main vehicle now is actually a Ford pickup. It's an F one 50, but yeah. Uh, when it comes down to it, I mean, I have a, I have a Camry. I let my daughter use and kind of have for the rest of high school. And that thing just, it, it tapped over just 300,000 miles before the hybrid battery went out on it. So I mean, it's, yeah, I love them. They're just, you don't beat them.

[00:32:40] You know, let me ask you a question there. If he got kicked off Facebook, where are you doing all this stalking from? I mean, I might've found other things that were there, but yes, he's been restored to Facebook. Well, not restored per se. I lost 15 years worth of content, you know, when they did that. So I, you know, some family photos and stuff, everything. Hey, listen, that's a real thing. If you guys aren't paying attention, um, you need to pay attention to your content that you put on social media.

[00:33:09] It does not belong to you and you, it is a process to set up with them, all of them and any of them. If you want to regularly download your content off of, uh, social media, but you can, I did it not long ago. You just download all of Facebook, all of your Facebook. Yeah. So that's what I do because you, I mean, things can happen. You can lose stuff. I recommend it. What you did. I mean, that's essentially backing it up and it's smart to do cause you never know.

[00:33:37] Cause like I said, it's not like I was even posting anything controversial, nothing inappropriate. It was just gone. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and that's, we increasingly are using these social media platforms as a, I mean, I, it's a diary. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, you can go back and check all kinds of things. So to lose that would be kind of devastating for a lot of people. It was honestly. And that's how it felt to me. It felt like I'd lost that 15 years worth of, yeah, like a diary. That's, that's a great way to put it. Um, yeah.

[00:34:05] And now it's since then, I mean, it was some months later after I got a little bit over my, you know, irritation with them. Um, I signed up for, for Facebook again, under just new email, new phone number, whatever. Um, and, uh, I only did that so I could have a marketplace account. Honestly, I, I post like twice a year tops. So they haven't, they haven't tracked you down again yet. No. That's a good reason to have an account though. Yeah. You kind of need marketplace. That's where people advertise now, you know, talking about finding a Buick Riviera for 500 bucks.

[00:34:35] Yeah. The Facebook marketplace would be the place to do it. Oh, it is a treasure trove of other people's crap. It is. It is. Um, it's, it's amazing. I love it except when I'm selling stuff. Well, let me tell you this. I'll tell you a quick story. I bought a bed frame from Facebook marketplace recently. Yeah. Got home, put all the pieces out, could not work out how to put it together. Got a message the next day saying, Hey, we got a few extra pieces. And I thought, okay, that's the answer. Got the extra pieces. Still couldn't figure it out. Used AI, used Gemini.

[00:35:05] I took a photograph, right? And I found the original bed. It was like a Wayfair. So nothing fancy. It turns out that when I initially went to pick the bed frame up, they gave me extra pieces from a different bed. So I'm trying to basically put two bed frames together as one. And it drove me insane for a couple of days. Oh yeah. So buyer beware for sure. But you don't expect to get extra pieces. No, that's usually the opposite. Usually there's something missing. Drove me nuts.

[00:35:33] All right, I got one more thing that I discovered online that I wanted. Well, maybe a couple more. But I thought this was a good one. It also made me think that maybe this was kind of part of what got you where you're going here is there's this quote from Barbara Bush. It says, but whatever error, whatever the times, one thing will never change. Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children. You must hug your children. You must love your children.

[00:36:00] Your success as a family, our success as a society depends on not what happens in the White House, but what happens inside your house. Barbara Bush. That spoke to me today when I saw that because how important is it to be a father first in the fact that we don't think about that responsibility that you have is your responsibility to your community and your culture and your area around is to be that first.

[00:36:29] Obviously, you take that really seriously. I do. What does that mean to be that in Montrose here with your kids and growing up and raising them here? I mean, for me, as far as the community goes, I mean, Montrose is kind of an idyllic place to raise kids. I mean, the community is big enough to where you have what you need, right? But small enough to where your kid's not getting forgotten.

[00:36:56] You're not you don't have you don't generally have the same worries you would have in a bigger area. Right. But I mean, I don't know. In my opinion, if you're not if you're not there for your kids, if you're not raising your kids instead of just, you know, throw them in front of an iPad or whatever. Right. Which we all do. But if you're actually there for them, then, yeah, you're not you're not only raising them to be good people, but you're just you're raising them to be good members of the community.

[00:37:25] You're raising them to well, to hopefully be better than you. And that's, of course, that's always been my objective. And so far, my kids are better than me. And I like that. That's a really important point, though, is that your kids are going to be members of our community. And so you're doing a service to everyone else in the community at the same time by raising children to be, you know, responsible and respectful adults who are going to go into

[00:37:53] jobs here or maybe they leave. But, you know, a good number are going to stay and form the next generation of our community. So it's I think it's more important than than just the home. Yeah. Right. To go to that quote, it is actually and we do have that kind of community. Right. It's like a Goldilocks community. It's not too big. It's not too small. And I think you're right. We do have everything we need. But and one of the reasons why I brought it up is what a great example to show your kids

[00:38:20] you're currently working for something that's looking out for other people. And when I read this, the other thing that it made me think is right now we're in a little bit of a situation in our community where, you know, I think it's easier to to to push things down or to complain about things than to kind of lift them up and talk about how great it is. I mean, as a father and I'm a father, my daughter's since graduated and moved, moved to Grand Junction, ironically.

[00:38:50] But, you know, the idea that I felt like this was a safe community. So I don't feel like we have a huge crime issue. I felt like we have a decent school system. My daughter went through it and I felt like she's in a good place. How do you feel that way? Like, are there I feel mantras is I don't recognize what other people sometimes say they see as mantras. I'm not the type to look at the negative. I mean, I'm aware of it when it's there.

[00:39:17] But at the end of the day, focusing on what's going wrong never helps the problem. Right. Right. You know, focusing on what is right and go and going well and what you can do to enhance and make the negative be better. Yeah. You know that that's where progress happens. Right. And it's the same with my kids and with your kids, too. I'm sure you don't you don't focus on the bad behavior. You focus on the good behavior and you reward that, you know, you teach them.

[00:39:46] This is what happens when you do the good thing. Right. As opposed to you did a bad thing. Here's a consequence, which you do impose those, too. But when you focus more on the good, that's where we all as people grow. Right. I mean, and it's same for our community. And yeah, I mean, I I've always been happy with the schools here. Everything's been really great in that regard. I mean, I every teacher my kids have had from kindergarten forward, you could tell that they genuinely cared.

[00:40:15] And again, because we don't have oversight classes. We don't have, you know, a lot of those issues. And I'm sure there's people who would say, yeah, we do. You know, but I mean, at the end of the day, my experience was always very positive. And I honestly, I I really couldn't see it being better than any other place. I mean, or any worse. Like, I guess if people are complaining about small town or whatever, I think we have it just as good or better. And bless our teachers and our coaches because they spend more time than we do with our kids. Right.

[00:40:45] That being said, that's what I really recognize about All Points Transit. You just talked about some of the programs that are going outside of Montrose. And I feel like that's a really positive thing that All Points is doing is recognizing that we're communities that are connected to each other. Yeah. And so we have to have some service that goes in between us. I think that that's important. And I'm excited to see that those are happening.

[00:41:10] Because I do feel there are times when we feel, I think, disconnected from our neighboring communities. You know, Delta isn't far away. Ridgeway and Urea are not far away. But I don't think there's a huge amount of crossover between those communities. You don't think that there is? No, not right now. I think, and I think initiatives like this can certainly help that. I would argue that we do have a lot of people that work in either or community. So that's an interesting point.

[00:41:40] About half of my staff here in the Montrose, well, we only have one office, but in our office in Montrose lives in Delta. And I always express to them that I do feel sorry for them for that. It's unfortunate. But they, yeah. Hey, that's okay. We pick on Grand Junction. Yeah, we feel the same way by Grand Junction. I'm always razzing Delta to these guys. It's, you know, just because I have to. But I mean, I remember as a kid, my perception was I had been to Delta a few times as a kid.

[00:42:10] Montrose was like no man's land. I didn't know anything about Montrose growing up. Right. Right. Now, living here, being here, I look at it and I'm like, no, we're the stinking competition for these, for Grand Junction, in my opinion. Oh, yeah, yeah. And especially when, and again, I don't probably make people mad, but I'm like, I think that our city government has been, they're just great. Like, if you look at them compared to Grand Junction and some of the initiatives that do and don't happen over there, our city's on the ball. And I love it.

[00:42:40] I mean, and they, nobody's perfect. No city's ever going to be perfect, you know. But at the end of the day, I'm honestly thrilled that we have the stuff we have. I mean, the fact that they, you know, like the water park is one of my favorite examples to use, I'm like, that thing is cool. I've used it a lot. It's fun. And Delta, you guys are welcome to become the next Montrose. You are. Yeah. We won't, we won't shut you down. Yeah. Do you, does the little points work with the city in any capacity? We have a great relationship with the city, honestly. And, and I love working with them.

[00:43:10] And the city's been really good about if we need it, they find a way to make it happen. If it's something they can't do, they still work with us to work around whatever that can't maybe. Right. Well, and I guess in some respects then, because we, so all points are one of the main or the major recipients of the lodging tax. Is that right? So these initiatives that you're talking about and the growth in the future are partly because

[00:43:38] of the city, but also not necessarily us as residents, but people that come to visit our communities are funding these programs too, which I think is great. I love that idea.

[00:44:17] Yeah. And I said, look, you know, this Montrose needs this. And, and they, you know, they agreed and they came up and they ended up, I think we ended up at 5%. Right. Um, which, which is great, you know, and that's, that's a huge contributor for us. But, um, it was just interesting because it, it, I guess that I got a new perspective on the fact that, you know, city council, they're focused on everything they're focused on. Transit was not even on their minds until we brought it to them.

[00:44:44] And so that, that kind of gave me perspective of what the, the culture is like out here. And you mentioned earlier, I mean, when you get not only rural, but just anywhere basically west of the Mississippi, people are not accustomed to using transit. I mean, this is, this is, this is the wild wild west, right? It's, we have wide open spaces. Most people have cars. And I mean, when you think of going somewhere, you think of hopping in the car and just going, you don't think about hopping on a bus. That seems inconvenient and difficult. What I do like though, is what you said is when you went to the city council, um, that end

[00:45:14] up being put on and the, the, the citizens voted for it. So the visitors funded it, the citizens actually voted. Yes, we want this, um, city council worked with you and you identified initially that it wasn't being considered. So it really was such a, a team effort, I think. Oh, huge. And, and, you know, I wouldn't be able to say we wouldn't have, it never would have happened if it hadn't been for the, uh, Uncompagre Valley Alliance.

[00:45:42] Those guys were, they brought it to our attention, frankly. And they, they, uh, they helped us through the whole process and they were, they were really good advocates for us. And I, so I really appreciated everything they did for us. But, um, but yeah, I mean, the whole process was really smooth because of, well, because of the system we have, right. The, the freedom we have to go in front of the local government and say, Hey, look, this is what we need. And they discuss it and they, they come up with a solution and it was, it was really great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:11] I think it's a real testament to how things happen in Montrose and how, you know, entities and the city and the public can work together to provide in this case, what is clearly a very valuable service to those people that really need it. Yeah. And I, I mean, every, and again, everyone's going to have their opinions, but I would really encourage folks to, if they have an issue, they want to see change happen in Montrose, you know, get some folks together and, and, uh, and make those presentations when you can,

[00:46:39] if, if it's something you would feel like you're really passionate about and could help our community, bring it to the council. You know what I mean? That's what, that's what they're there for, you know, come to work sessions, go to the dark meetings, you know, city council meetings. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's, um, I think it's first and third Tuesdays of the month. Yeah. Okay. So we got to start wrapping things up, but before we do, um, do you, do you want to get a chance to do a shout out for October fest or? Oh, sure. Why not? Yeah. Go ahead. And then I've got a, I've got a little game I want to play with. Oh boy.

[00:47:08] Um, so October fest is, and a lot of people don't even realize it is all points transits, uh, big benefits benefit of the year. So every, all the proceeds, all of the ticket sales, everything that happens at October fest, uh, goes towards benefiting all points transit, which is a nonprofit. And so our, our funds are very limited. We have to do, we rely on these things to keep these services moving forward. So when you think about attending October fest, think of it, not just as having going out and having a good time.

[00:47:37] We have fun activities is a great time there. Um, but think of it also as you're helping that little old lady across the street who can't get anywhere. You're, you're contributing to getting her a ride somewhere. And I mean, just look at it that way. Anything you do to all, for all points transit or, or for October fest goes towards that. And then the other, the other thing is, again, we're always, um, we have, we have places on our website for people to donate. If you, if it strikes you to help somebody else who is in need of this sort of service,

[00:48:07] I encourage you to just go to our website and you can do a simple online donation. It's yeah. So I want to say one more super, super easy URL, all points, plural transit.com forward slash donation. If you really want to go, I want to mention October fest though briefly again, because not only has it grown, um, I remember going to it when it was in like Centennial Plaza or the parking lot there and it was tiny. Yeah. Now it's huge. And it's at the amphitheater.

[00:48:35] Again, a testament to the people and the city of Montrose that we have are fantastic amphitheater. But October fest is one of the primary events every year that really, I think puts Montrose on the map a little bit. I love it. And I'll be going this year and we'll get you dressed up in some, uh, I need some later hosing. There's no problem. A dream. We can get a large, a what extra large drindle. A drindle. Drindle. What is a drindle? Drindle. What is a drindle? I'll tell you later. Okay. All right then.

[00:49:03] You got to tell me before I agree to be. All right. So we haven't done this in a while, but I wanted to do a rapid fire round. Sounds good. I'm going to try to keep it like one word answers. The question should be, should allow you to do that. You ready? All right, let's do it. Okay. Coffee or energy drink? Energy drink. Oh, early bird or late nighter? Both. Really? You're burning the candle at both things? I don't sleep much. All right. Is cereal. Hence the energy drinks. Yeah. Hence the energy drinks.

[00:49:33] Is cereal a soup? Strictly speaking. Yeah. Yeah. It qualifies? I think so. Is hot dog a sandwich? Technically. More of a hoagie if you ask me, you know. All right. Here's where it gets, it's going to start getting more dangerous. All right. You ready? Netflix or YouTube? Yes. I'm a YouTuber myself. Yes. Because that's where this is broadcast. Yes. Correct answer. Correct answer.

[00:50:01] Restoration videos or community network channel? Hmm. I'd say, geez, community network is pretty, pretty okay, I think. Yeah. I think we'll go with that one. All right. WKRP it is. All right. Last one on here. Ready? Clear networks or Starlink? I love clear networks. They're a huge supporter. Correct. Yep. Yeah. We're done, ladies and gentlemen. And you passed.

[00:50:27] And there's one thing, too, I wanted to mention while we're here, if I can. And so, like I said, we've had a ton of support from the city. One thing that we're doing that a lot of people might not be aware of, I'm sure everyone has experienced the new roundabout down at East Oak Grove and Woodgate. Mm-hmm. We worked very closely with the city in the development of that roundabout because the land that is just northeast of that is owned by All Points Transit. Okay. Okay.

[00:50:54] That is the future site of the Montrose Transit Center, which we'll be building sometime in the next, well, depending on how our funding keeps going, sometime within the next couple of years. So. Fantastic. Yeah. Is that to make more room for more vehicles, to do all of the above, I'm assuming? It's designed to be a true hub for transit. So it's not just going to be All Points Transit operating out of there. We want people to be able to catch their Uber there.

[00:51:22] We want people to be able to hop on those awesome little electric scooters. Oh, we're going to bring electric scooters. Yeah, I want to. You know, and they can catch up with the bus staying bus there, that sort of thing. That's our goal is to truly make it a transit hub, not just our office, but like a place where people can easily get where they need to be. I remember taking the bus down once and you had to get it from the Wiener Schnitzel place, right? And so you go, it's not convenient to get out there. So having a hub, I mean, you currently have one downtown, right? Like.

[00:51:52] We do. Yeah. Right by the police station. The bus stand will be able to drop people off like downtown. So now I think it's a great plan. I forgot one that was close to your heart. Schnauzers or. Oh, I was going to say adopted. Well, I'm a Schnauzer guy myself. Ah. I, you know, I've always, I ever, in my whole life I've said, I don't, I don't like little dogs. They're not real dogs.

[00:52:18] They're rats, you know, but I'll be dogged if those aren't the best dogs I've ever had in my life. They're just amazing. The only reason why I brought that up is I did see that. And Schnauzer was my first dog. Roscoe was his name and absolutely loved him. Oh, I do. Miss you, Roscoe. All right. Hey, Gary, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. Thanks for giving us all the information about all points. Yeah. Love to have you back as things continue to grow and change. Yeah. Love to be back. Appreciate it. Good to get to know you. Yeah. You too, guys. I appreciate you.

[00:52:48] All right, everybody. It's been another episode of WKRP. We'll talk to you soon.