Many know of the green and gold buses that move around the Big Rapids area, but “MOTA” is more than an ordinary transportation service.

According to MOTA director Staci Hitts, their mission is to “improve mobility and quality of life for all people” in the means of transportation.

This of course can relate to moving people around but the organization does much more to assist with emergency response.

“We are one of the first organizations that they will call in the event of any type of emergency situation that requires the evacuation or transportation of large groups of people,” Hitts said. “Two years ago, we responded to a call in Evart for a potential gas leak and last winter, we responded to a handful of vehicle accidents and transported people to warming centers to get them out of the elements. We deal with that kind of stuff more behind the scenes.”

In their upcoming millage, MOTA is hoping to expand their services including adding prescription and medication pick-up as well as adding a non-emergency medical transportation service as well.

“Our intention is to increase current services and then expand on services that we would like to get into,” Hitts said. “(Prescription pick-up) is something that we have kept since COVID, so we would like to see that be increased into a potentially standalone service. Then, one of the biggest things that we're looking forward to is creating and implementing non-emergency medical transportation. It would ideally be its own service separate from the demand response, which will be a lot more efficient and beneficial for those who need to get to their appointments on time.”

MOTA’s previous millage in 2019 was actually the company’s first successful vote. The impact of the passing not only kept their doors open but allowed expanded hours of service to the community. Hitts believes this new millage will bring the same amount of impact towards the counties.

“(The previous millage) was very vital, especially with the market for buses right now. It has enabled us to be able to go out, buy buses and not have to worry about cutting costs elsewhere. The millage that we have put in is all operational, so it helps pay the bills and cover those unexpected costs. This includes buying a bus outside of a state contract, since there was a three year wait before they were going to start shipping buses out again.”

Vote for the millage is slated to take place Aug. 8, with township halls opening for voting from 7 A.M. to 8 P.M. MOTA will have free transportation available for all travelling to vote at the polls.