More than a dozen representatives from Mexico and county agencies met for the second time on Thursday to address the shortage of affordable public transportation throughout Audrain County.
Central …
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More than a dozen representatives from Mexico and county agencies met for the second time on Thursday to address the shortage of affordable public transportation throughout Audrain County.
Central Missouri Community Action organized the meeting, inviting a representative from Serve Transportation, a Callaway County service, to discuss their operation.
Serve runs a fleet of nine vehicles. With these, they run day routes, rides to health care facilities outside the county for medical appointments, a Monday-Friday shopping route, work rides and a routine dedicated for dialysis patients.
Apart from OATS Transit, which operates on a limited schedule, Audrain County has been without reliable and inexpensive public transportation since We Will Transport shut down operations and Hometown Transport pulled their services around a year ago.
“That leaves a gap,” said Tad Dobyns, a CMCA community organizer based in Mexico. “If you list the top five needs, transportation in rural communities will always be there. We need to do something.”
Serve receives much of its funding from a single grant, with the state, tax credits and community service organizations such as United Way footing much of the rest. The cost of rides vary from $2 to $10 per stop and can be taken for any purpose.
The company transports people to jobs, interviews, medical appointments, grocery stores and even to the movies.
Dobyns points out that the shortage of public transportation affects everyone in Audrain County.
“We want to be sure transportation is in place to help workers get to their jobs,” he said.
The question on Thursday was how to create a similar program covering Audrain County. The gathering discussed the options such as creating a new nonprofit or operating under an existing board.
One tantalizing possibility introduced was an agreement that would expand Serve into the county.
“I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but we see the need,” said Carol Lewis, Serve’s transportation lead.
Kristina Smiley of Senior Health Insurance observed that hearing from Serve was beneficial, even if the expansion idea doesn’t work out.
“We’re at the infancy stage,” she said. “But I have not been this excited about a project in a long time.”
