COUNTY TO APPOINT TRANSIT AUTHORITY

JACKSON -- The Cape Girardeau County Commission Monday moved a step closer to establishing a transit authority.

The five-member transit authority board would help develop a coordinated, public transportation system for the county that would better use existing transportation services that already receive state and federal funding.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said the commission could establish a transit authority within the next several weeks. Jones said the commission will seek applications from persons interested in serving on the board.

An ad hoc committee appointed by the commission last fall recommended Monday that a transit authority be established and a transportation coordinator be hired.

Charlotte Craig, who heads up the county's public health center, chaired the committee.

Craig said a transit authority could apply for federal and state funding through the Missouri Department of Transportation. The money could be distributed to the Area Agency on Aging and other agencies and organizations that provide transportation services in the county, she said.

There is also the possibility that the transit authority could buy vehicles and provide services that aren't provided by existing transportation services, ad hoc committee member Glenda Hoffmeister said. Hoffmeister deals with transportation needs as director of the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging.

In a letter to the commission, Craig suggested the transit authority may need to provide some local funding to secure money from MoDOT. Craig said local funding could come from local county and city revenues, senior citizen tax money, the Area Agency on Aging or other sources.

State law allows a transit authority to impose a 1-cent sales tax for the operation of transportation services provided that voters approve it. But county commissioners said they have no plans to ask voters to approve a tax measure.

"Current transportation providers should not view the establishment of a county transit authority as a threat to their operations," Craig wrote to the commission. "We see this as a means to dramatically improve the worthy but fragmented services available, and in no way should a transit authority be perceived as a threat."

A transit study by the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission in 1998 reported that $907,650 in local, state and federal funding was being spent by VIP Industries, Cape County Transit, the city of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University on transportation services.

Craig said a transit authority could receive transportation funds and coordinate services. The authority could issue requests for proposals with specific guidelines, stipulations and scope of work from current or future transportation providers.

"Whoever could meet the stipulations would receive funding," she said. The services would be monitored and money reallocated if the required services weren't being provided.

Craig suggested that more than one transportation agency could receive funding from a transit authority.

Hoffmeister said it would be up to the transit authority and a transportation coordinator to devise a countywide transit program.

Hoffmeister said the goal would be for all government funding for transportation providers in Cape Girardeau County to be funneled through the transit authority.

She acknowledged that a transit authority sounds like "an administrative, bureaucratic thing." But it is a way to have coordinated transportation services, she said.