Funding for the Baldwin County government’s transit service was set to expire at midnight Wednesday.
With this in mind, the county commissioners held a called meeting on Tuesday morning, ultimately voting 3-2 to continue to fund the program for another 30 days. Commissioners Kendrick Butts, Emily Davis and Sammy Hall
“THESE PEOPLE
DON’T HAVE
ANY OTHER
WAY TO GET TO
WHERE THEY
ARE GOING...
BALDWIN
TRANSIT IS
VERY VITAL
TO BALDWIN
COUNTY.”
- CRAIG PEARSON voted yes, while Scott Little and Andrew Strickland voted no.
The transit service, consisting of four buses, gave 8,067 one-way rides in 2025, according to data presented at Tuesday’s meeting. That averages out to 22 rides per day. The cost for riders is $3. The cost to run the service is roughly $37,000 per month. Based on these figures, factoring in the $3 ride fee, each trip costs approximately $52 in tax dollars.
Hall has been an opponent of the program for years, calling it inefficient. On Tuesday, however, he cast the deciding vote to continue the service, at least for the time being.
A large majority of the county’s transit program has always been funded by a federal grant. However, that federal grant money expired earlier this week, which was based on a technicality. In order to receive the federal transit grant, county governments must submit a copy of their 2025 audit in the grant application. Baldwin County’s audit still has not been completed, which means there was no audit to submit.
The hope is that the contractor responsible for conducting the audit will have it completed within the next 30 days, and the federal grant application for transit service will be approved, thus reducing the county government’s portion of the bill by approximately two-thirds.
Craig Peason, a longtime driver for Baldwin Transit, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, saying that “dialysis (centers), cancer centers and the hospital” were the three main places where he drops off riders.
“These people don’t have any other way to get where they’re going. If they did, they wouldn’t be taking transit,” Pearson said. “Baldwin Transit is very vital to Baldwin County.”