Bus services began Monday, June 2, for Take 5 program clients and other residents who participate in the St. Ignace Community Action Agency's meal program. Mackinac County commissioners approved adding $10,000 to the agency's budget to pay for the services of a bus driver.

Don Wright, of the agency, presented the funding request to commissioners at their Thursday, May 22 meeting.

"We're struggling," he told commissioners. Bus operations ended in October 2007, when funds dropped into the red.

Clients have been using a taxi at their own expense, said Mr. Wright, to attend the meal program, which is offered Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at Community Action Agency's Fenlon Center on Reagon Street.

The agency serves about 30 meals each day to clients at the center.

"I've been with Community Action 23 years," said Mr. Wright. "When I first started, we were serving about 70 meals and our home-bounds were at 10. Now, it's just reversed."

The bus, he said, would also be used to deliver Meal on Wheels to clients in the Moran area. Countywide, the agency serves 160 homebound clients.

The agency, he said, has enough funding to operate the bus, although not enough for the driver's wages of $9.90 per hour. The agency is planning to run the bus 15 hours a week.

The Take Five program, which is administered by Community Action, averages about 15 clients and offers several hours of relief for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's or memory loss.

Mr. Wright also told commissioners the agency is out of funding raised by Walk for Warmth volunteers, and the agency has no funding remaining for emergency services.

"It's working people," he said of the agency's clients, "that are just having a tough time."