County transit faces higher demand

By David Fenker

david@nmpaper.com

 

Demand for Wabash County Transit’s services exceeds the organization’s current ability to meet it.

Living Well in Wabash County CEO Beverly Ferry provided her quarterly report at the Aug. 6 meeting of the Wabash County commissioners, and reported that, due to recent program changes and a need for funding, Wabash County’s public transportation agency is unable to keep up with calls for service.

“We started spacing our rides further apart,” Ferry said regarding the recent changes. “Some of them were crammed in three to four minutes apart – and I understand dispatchers in the past trying to pack them in so you don’t have to turn anybody down, but it causes a lot of other issues – so we have increased the amount of time between rides.

“The problem is, that reduced the amount of availability.”

Ferry said that the new bus route schedule, set to go into effect this fall, will help relieve some of the pressure – but not all of it.

“It’s a funding issue,” she said. “As people are living longer and want to be active in the community, and while people with disabilities … are being trained to use transit to access the community … It’s not something that will go away. In fact, the pressure will go up. Our dispatchers have been feeling pressure for awhile.”

Ferry said that the public transit system was set up to serve both those whose mental or physical abilities prohibited them from driving, as well as those whose financial situation prevented them from having other means of transportation.

While solving some issues, the additional space between pickups, Ferry said, has exasperated the organization’s lack of availability.

“It does affect people’s lives,” she said. “People don’t get to keep jobs because of it.”

One of those people is the adult son of Nicole Hicks, who also attended the commissioners’ meeting.

“I have a son with a disability, who we have worked really hard at teaching him to be part of the community and to work,” she said.

Her son, who is 22, started his first job with a local landscaping company this summer.

“We have been transporting him, which is fine, with one of my … other boys. He’s going back to college,” Hicks said. “I called last week for a ride for him to continue his employment for another month.

“The need didn’t start until Aug. 15,” she continued, “… and to be told no, neither way was even a possibility – to get him there or  pick him up – it was really hard.

“I’m just a person who has a son who wants to access his community, who wants to work, and I can’t make that happen.”

Additionally, Hicks said that she works for Insource, which helps families of special education students.

“In our work, we are training our teachers and staff to teach our individuals who are transitioning out of high school to use city transit as an option to become independent,” she said. “To be faced with possibly this same issue, of let’s teach independent, let’s teach accessing your community, and to be told no – it really does affect that person’s livelihood.”

Without Wabash County Transit, Hicks’ son will not be able to finish out his summer job.

“He cannot access his community at all,” she said. “As of Aug. 15, he has to quit his job, a month early, and he will be sitting at home. That’s his life.

“This is not just low-income; this is those with disabilities that you’re really impacting. I don’t know what the fix is, but it’s just real, it’s very real for me.”

The commissioners thanked Ferry and Hicks for their input.

“I appreciate your input on that situation,” chairman Brian Haupert said. “We’ll work with the transportation folks and see if we can find a better way to do things.”

Ferry said that the federal government’s quarterly reimbursement for Wabash County Transit came in at $94,062 for the second quarter of 2018, and that the organization is pursuing a grant for two additional buses.

However, funding is still an issue.

“The issue is that we have more and more and more people, like her son, who need the service,” she said.

“This is something that we work on daily, but this is not unusual.

“It does stem from the lack of funding.”

Ferry noted that, during the second quarter of this year, Wabash County Transit also faced a driver shortage, but has since hired more drivers and is hiring more dispatchers.

The location of those needing rides can also be problematic.

“We serve all through the county, but it makes it very difficult to – you might be abel to get somebody in who’s closer, and that’s the challenge,” Ferry said.

As an example, Ferry said that somebody in Somerset may request a ride to an afternoon doctor’s appointment that the organization can fulfill, but it may not be able to provide a return trip due to other scheduling issues.

“Those are functions of money [as well],” she said.

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