About a dozen regular NRoute riders pleaded with the NRoute Transportation Commission at a public hearing Wednesday evening to retain Saturday service and two routes scheduled to be cut beginning Oct. 1. Commissioners showed sympathy with the riders’ concerns, but told them they’re simply not able to afford the services any longer.

“We are operating, literally, hand-to-mouth at this point,” said Commission President Dianne Gawronski. “We are trying as hard as we can to get more money from the city and county… but if we can’t, there is a very good chance that we will have to close the entire NRoute operation — and we don’t want to do that.”

“The bottom line is the reason these cuts are being made is because we are trying to salvage the system,” said Commissioner Don Brown.

NRoute is operating about $34,000 in the red with just two weeks left in the fiscal year, and it’s been having to withhold some checks to vendors so they don’t bounce. The cuts will save the commission nearly $90,000 in the coming fiscal year, NRoute Executive Director Evelyn Bumpers has estimated.

The city, meanwhile, has said it will not give NRoute its budgeted allocation of $135,000 in the coming year if it does not provide an audit for the past two fiscal years. However, Commissioner Mark Buys stressed the commission asked the city for an audit months ago — and said any perception the mayor and aldermen are suspicious of how NRoute money is being spent is flawed.

The commissioners listened to riders, who detailed one after another how their lives will be altered for the worse by the cuts, and were visibly disturbed by what they were hearing.

“I got out of the (Mountain of Faith Ministries) shelter two years ago, and if I didn’t have the bus every day I would have never gotten a job and gotten out of the shelter,” said Lisa Gould, who added she still uses the bus system daily. “When you start cutting routes and raising fares, it feels like the beginning of the end.”

Mary Saucier, also a daily rider, asked the board to consider just how much some people rely on public transportation to provide them access to the community that those with a vehicle take for granted.

“Not having a car and trying to get to the grocery store is a sad way to live,” she said. “NRoute made it a little more exciting. I don’t know how the rest of you really need NRoute, but I really need it.”

Though the city got limited taxi service back Monday after more than year with none, Sam Pritchett told the board the taxi is not an affordable alternative for most NRoute riders.

“It’s going to cost an arm and a leg,” Pritchett said.

“I feel for all of you who are affected by this,” Brown said after hearing about a half-dozen riders. “It hurts to hear these things. We’re trying to salvage the system; that’s really what’s going on here.”

The public hearing ended after about 30 minutes with the commissioners telling the riders they would do their best to keep NRoute functional and look into ways to accommodate those who are affected.

As for the audit, Bumpers said the city might pay for it, at an estimated cost of $5,000 to $6,000. However, she noted she has not gotten confirmation from the city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Elvin Parker, accountant for the commission, said he is expecting to get one proposal for the audit this week and will work to get another in the coming week.