PARK RAPIDS, Minnesota, June 19, 2026, 16:06 CDT
- Heartland Express must boost its local revenue before Hubbard County can expand the bus route, with 2027 operating costs projected at $818,500.
- County materials placed an $87,705 plan to improve Middle LaSalle County Forest Road on the June 16 board agenda.
- Both issues have the same root: small systems with actual demand but not much money.
Heartland Express, the local bus in Hubbard County, may not get a bigger route unless it clears a revenue hurdle. County documents put projected 2027 operating costs at $818,500, with the county expected to cover $81,850 of that.
Transit is now a live issue. The Hubbard County Board of Commissioners added the Heartland Express 2027 Public Transit Operating Grant Application to its June 16 agenda, along with a low bid for the Middle LaSalle County Forest Road Improvement Project.
Timing is important with both issues tying back to rural access. Heartland Express runs public transit across Hubbard County six days a week, logging 15,121 rides from Jan. 1 through May 31, the county agenda item report for the board said.
Heartland Express says it runs curb-to-curb bus routes in Park Rapids and Bemidji, partnering with Veterans Services, Community Education, the Development Achievement Center, Social Services, Medicaid and others. The Park Rapids city bus operates as a call-ahead, wheelchair-ready service, charging $1.50 for a one-way trip as posted on the system’s website. Hubbard County Heartland Express
Hubbard County’s latest report named Mike Edminster, interim human services director and adult services supervisor, as the staff contact on the transit grant. According to the report, the county plans to cover its 10% operating-grant share with money from farebox revenue and local contracts.
Middle LaSalle Forest Road is a 1.44-mile county forest road in Lake Hattie Township. The agenda item report named Land Commissioner Cory Kimball as the staff contact. The report said the road goes through thousands of acres of county land, is used for recreation and timber management, and has been “neglected for many years.” It’s not easily drivable.
Gladen Construction of Laporte, Minnesota, put in the low quote at $87,705 for a range of practical work: stump and rock removal, Class 5 aggregate road base, ditching, crowning, and a finished 16-foot road top. The county had set aside $75,000 for the job, but there’s $241,000 in the Natural Resource Management Road Improvement Fund to cover forest road work.
Local funding stress hasn’t gone away just because there are other transport choices. Paul Bunyan Transit still runs in Beltrami County, Bemidji, and parts of northern Minnesota. Tri-Valley’s T.H.E. Bus covers eight counties in the northwest. Jefferson Lines keeps a schedule through Bemidji and more, connecting over longer distances. Heartland Express is the one for Hubbard County tied to county rides and local county trips. Paul Bunyan Transit Tri-Valley Opportunity Council
But there are risks. Under the Heartland Express resolution, the county is on the hook for up to 10% of operating costs, 20% of capital costs, and all of any local share above what state funds cover. The road project has a Sept. 16 deadline, so delays from weather, contractors, or price changes could squeeze the construction schedule.
The bigger issue isn’t a major expansion. It’s catch-up work—one small bus network adding service but watching its local funding, and a forest road returning to basic use after years in bad shape.
Hubbard County faces the same question again. Whether riders can get service doesn’t have much to do with demand now; it’s more about whether money from fares, contracts, grants, and road dollars all line up at once.
