This story has been updated to further clarify the amount that SPOT received from the CARES act.

SANDPOINT — The Selkirks-Pend Oreille Transit Authority is facing a $45,000 budget deficiency from the city of Sandpoint, which may severely decrease its hours and rides in the city.  

SPOT Bus’s Executive Director Donna Griffin said that the organization had previously been funded by $1.2 million from the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and other federal grants. The money from the CARES act has since run dry, and so SPOT is looking to the cities it operates in to provide the match funds needed to continue its service. 

“Any of our Bonner County and Boundary County operations are totally grant funded,” Griffin said. “When it comes to grant funding, though all those sources require some measure of match. It equals about a 35% match required, so for every $18,000-$20,000 of federal funding we need $10,000 of local funding.” 

Due to the loss of CARES funds, SPOT is asking Sandpoint for a significant budget increase, from $95,000 in 2025 to asking for $150,000 in 2026. Currently, Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm has budgeted a 10% increase, to $105,000, but that still leaves the city as the only one in the region that has not budgeted SPOT’s full amount.  

If Sandpoint does not provide the needed match funds, Griffin said that service to and within Sandpoint will be reduced by about one-third. 

“That fixed route service right now runs 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” Griffin said. “The Sandpoint piece of it could look like a 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. operation, six days a week and no Sundays.” 

The organization is still trying to work through the problems that a reduced Sandpoint service would bring, Griffin said. She said that the condensed service would hurt the riders of SPOT more than the organization. 

“We will not know what our restrictions will be until we get our budget,” Griffin said. “It becomes from a service perspective, a real ripple effect... it’s going to prove [difficult] to provide that service that Ponderay, Kootenai and Dover are paying for and then Sandpoint.” 

SPOT is searching for new revenue sources, but Griffin said the organization isn’t looking to charge fares on rides yet. The organization did explore the option but found numerous problems with the implementation. 

“For driver’s safety, we are pretty confident that cash is off the table. We are not going to have any buses carrying cash around,” Griffin said. “Whenever we pull in fares... it cannot be used for match, it has to be used off the top and then the grant funding kicks in.” 

The organization is moving forward with bus advertisements in a test phase to a new source of revenue. Griffin said the organization expects around $36,000 in revenue from the advertisements next year, that can be used as match funds. 

There does appear to be strong support for SPOT on the city council, spearheaded by Councilman Justin Dick. A member of the SPOT board of trustees, Dick said he feels SPOT provides a crucial service to the area at the June 25 council meeting. 

“We are doing everything we possibly can to figure out how we keep this thing moving so we don’t lose our community partners,” Dick said of SPOT. “If one is dragging it can be an anchor around the neck or if the big one goes down, it might take down the rest of them very quickly.”  

Grimm said in an email to the Daily Bee that he expects “healthy discussion” from the council about SPOT’s funding and that the 10% increase he has already provided falls in line with last year’s amount. 

“I’m confident that we can strike the right balance,” Grimm said in the email. “SPOT is an important and valuable service that the cities provide. Like every organization, they as the city are working hard to maintain service in light of frozen or shrinking revenues.” 

Sandpoint’s City Council is set to host a public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 budget Wednesday, Aug. 20, at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.