By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
Stars and Stripes Shuttle is once again serving Cheney and Eastern Washington University, and the business's original owner, Bill Thompson, will be driving the van.
The business has a new van dedicated to Cheney, aiming to shuttle students and residents to Spokane and to the airport for less than the cost of a taxi ride.
Stars and Stripes began in 2003 as a shuttle service for survival school students stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base. Thompson was a member of the Air National Guard at the time and had experience as a taxi driver. He recalled seeing the taxis lined up at the base to bring students to the airport and to downtown Spokane during their free time.
“They were telling me how much money they made off the survival school,” he said. “About 6,000 students a year go through there and I thought, well, I can do that.”
Thompson wrote a business plan while he was deployed overseas, and worked with the commander of the survival school to get the business off the ground. Thompson and his wife Sandy launched Stars and Stripes Shuttle, and quickly attained success as a shuttle for the base. They began serving other communities besides the base, offering flat rates to the airport and downtown Spokane, and in 2006 Thompson bought out local shuttle service Eagle Connection and began shuttling Cheney residents as well.
Business was booming, Thompson said, but a few years later Sandy passed away and Stars and Stripes scaled back. Bill Thompson then sold the business last February to Scott and Erin McElroy, a couple with a military background and connections at Fairchild.
“It was a good fit,” Thompson said.
For the past year, Stars and Stripes has remained dedicated to Fairchild, but Thompson said he still saw a need in Cheney, a town he has called home for many years.
“There's a lot of calls that come from out here,” he said.
Thompson said he hoped to provide a convenient shuttle service for EWU students and Cheney residents who need rides to the airport, or to run errands and attend medical appointments locally or in Spokane.
Stars and Stripes is somewhere between a taxicab and a city bus, Thompson said.
“A shuttle is different in that we charge per person. We don't charge per mile,” he said. “We have designated areas that we can pick up at and transport to, where a taxicab has a little bit more flexibility.”
Appointments for rides are encouraged at least two days in advance, and Thompson's minivan will shuttle riders within Cheney, to other West Plains communities, to Spokane International Airport and to various locations in and around downtown Spokane.
“I won't go any further though. It's impossible to try to please everybody, so we have certain designated areas you take people to,” Thompson said, pointing out that he will be the only driver for Cheney. “To try to get too far away and leave this area wide open with nobody responding to calls, it'd be too hard to try to accommodate that.”
Thompson said the McElroys hope to expand Cheney service in the two years or so.
Stars and Stripes' Cheney rates are: $7 per person, each way, within Cheney; $27 for one person to the airport; $17 per person for two or more riders to the airport. Families are encouraged to call about special rates. Cheney and Medical Lake residents should call 389-0817 for appointments, and Fairchild and Airway Heights residents should call 389-0817.
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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