COUNTY SEEKS TRANSPORTATION EFFICIENCY

JACKSON -- Cape Girardeau County commissioners are looking for ways to make tax-funded transportation services for senior citizens more efficient.

Commissioners Monday asked two representatives of the Community Caring Council's Transportation Committee to draw up a proposal for putting all of the transportation services funded through the Senior Citizens Service Tax under a single administration.

"Maybe we need to make transportation one big deal under one umbrella, and that gets the revenue," Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said.

Barbara Stribling, president of Community Caring Council and chairman of the council's transportation committee, and Ellie Knight, director of the RSVP program for Cape Girardeau and Scott counties and a member of the caring council's transportation committee, agreed with the commissioners' contention that transportation services need improvement.

"We just feel like there's a lot of transportation running around not filled," Stribling said.

Jones estimated the county allocates $80,000 a year to help agencies serving the elderly buy vans. Most recently, commissioners funded van purchases for the Cape Girardeau and Jackson senior centers and Cape County Transit.

Despite the fact the vans are being purchased, commissioners are still hearing complaints from senior citizens who say they can't get where they need to go when they need to go there.

Figuring out who should get the funding and straightening out the tangle of service agencies in the county "is driving us crazy," Jones said.

Commissioner Joe Gambill said the commission wants to make services more efficient.

The caring council's transportation study found clients' biggest complaint was inadequate hours of service, Stribling said. The study recommended establishing a long-term goal of countywide public transportation, she said.

Overall, Jones said, transportation services are "very much lacking" in the county, but the commission can only act on services for seniors.

"We can see the big picture; we just can't do anything about it moneywise," he said.

Transportation "is not a situation that is being taken care of at all," Knight said. The city of Cape Girardeau administers a program in which seniors can buy coupons redeemable for taxi trips, but those coupons limit them to four trips per month.

"That means you can only get out of your house four times a month," she said. "That's not what you call a mobile society."

"My dream is for the county commission to pull everything together and then they would be the person to designate who does it and who they want to oversee it," Knight said.

Jones said commissioners don't want to cause agencies any concerns about "turf," but Knight said agencies could probably save money on insurance, vehicle maintenance and drivers' salaries as part of a transportation "pool."

In addition, she said, the county could contract services with other agencies such as Easter Seals, to make the system self-sufficient and "maximize the cost of the program."

Eventually, she said, the system could even be used by people just trying to get to work, not just for the elderly or for special-needs populations.

Scott County is operating a countywide transportation system that Knight helped establish.

"We're all on the same wavelength," Jones said.

"I think our goal is accountability," Gambill said. "The money is tax revenue that we funnel through these agencies. We don't want to lose control of that money."

The commission doesn't want to tell the agencies what services to provide, he said, but commissioners do want to make sure taxpayers' money is well-spent.

Commissioners asked Stribling and Knight to draw up a master plan for applying for grant funding and setting up transportation services. "We need a blueprint," Gambill said.

The plan should be complete by mid-June.

The county collects $250,000 to $300,000 annually from the seniors tax. Revenues collected help pay for day care services, recreation centers and meals on wheels programs as well as transportation services for seniors.