A resident’s lived experience with DATA

July 31, 2026

My name is Saundra, and I have been riding with Delta Area Transit Authority (DATA) for more than 16 years. When I moved to the Gladstone area from Chicago, I was raising two young children and knew very little about the community. DATA became one of the first services that helped me get established. At the time, I was healthy, could walk without assistance, and still had my vision. As I learned more about DATA, I became involved with Friends of DATA and later volunteered with Regional Interagency Coordinating Council (RICC). My two children and I even helped raise money by selling ...

Support for public transportation

July 23, 2026

When people ask why I support the DATA Millage, I think back to the times it helped my family and me. In 1997, after surgery, I needed physical therapy and had no one nearby to drive me. DATA got me to every appointment and made my recovery possible. Later, as a working mother, I used it to get my children to scheduled activities, and I appreciated knowing they would be picked up and dropped off safely. Years later, when my mother came to live with me after being diagnosed with bone cancer and later needed a wheelchair, DATA helped her get to medical appointments and community activities ...

Rep. Jack Bergman wrong about Canadian wildfires

July 22, 2026

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman is completely wrong about Canadian wildfires and needlessly picks a fight with our closest ally. Many methods used in the United States don’t work in their forests. We live in an area of mixed forest types and agricultural land with lots of roads. Even our western forests are not as remote as those in Canada. Years ago, we had a forest fire threaten our home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A network of nearby state, federal and local fire organizations arrived quickly and contained the fire before it reached us! Canada’s boreal forest covers 1.3 billion ...

Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement questioned

July 9, 2026

Editors note: The figures presented in this letter were sourced from official Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, or MDARD, reports, the Small Business Association of Michigan, Interlochen Public Radio and The Detroit News. I’m befuddled! The Michigan Chamber of Commerce exists to promote Michigan’s economy and support the businesses that create jobs across our state. That is why its endorsement of U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman is so difficult to understand. Over the past year, Michigan lost 13,000 trade, transportation and utility jobs and 9,000 manufacturing jobs. ...

DATA transportation transparency

July 7, 2026

Like many residents, I believe public transportation is an important service for our community. Seniors, veterans, individuals with disabilities and others depend upon it for medical appointments, groceries, work and maintaining their independence. If the facts show that these essential services would truly be lost without additional taxpayer support, my vote would be yes. That is why I believe voters deserve clear, complete and timely information before making an eight-year commitment. The signs placed throughout Delta County sending messages like “if transit ends, lives will end” ...

Supporting local businesses

June 17, 2026

In a world that is guided by solidarity and programmed anatomic emotionless decision-making through A.I., online shopping and social platforms, walking into a small business can bring rays of color into one’s life. This is what I experience when I walk into Healthway Nutrition Store in Escanaba, U.P. Michigan. At first glance inside the small local business store, one’s olfactory senses fire up in the brain as the health store’s air is redolent of spices and welcoming ambient body heat. A sense of pathos is thick in the air, causing the brain to reconnect to the senses of being ...