Getting there from here

Had the sun not been shining, the cool wind that whispered around Cape Girardeau early Monday afternoon might have been a bit uncomfortable.

As it was, the warm sun and the cool breeze made it pleasant for walking if one chose to do so.

Paul Franklin walked with a steady purpose on Broadview Street, his hands buried in his denim jacket, his head bowed. This was not a man out for a nice Monday afternoon stroll, however. He was commuting to work.

Earlier that morning Franklin walked 30 minutes from his home to his security/maintenance job at the Show Me Center. Later, he got off that job and started his long walk to his other security job -- at the mall on the opposite end of town.

Two jobs. One man. No car. No bus.

"Every day," he said. "Sometimes my feet hurt, but I've been doing it for so long, I get used to it."

Franklin sometimes uses the city's taxi coupon program, but he only gets 14 coupons per month, two of which are used to go to city hall to pick up the coupons. After the coupons run out, he can't afford the taxi rates.

Franklin represents the No. 1 problem in Cape Girardeau, according to the United Way of Southeast Missouri and the Community Caring Council. The two organizations recently joined hands to assess and address the community's biggest problems.

The organizations surveyed residents and community leaders. First, they identified 25 issues. Then they narrowed the issues to 11 and then four. At the top of the list of perceived problems in Cape Girardeau County and Scott City is inadequate public transportation.

Franklin couldn't agree more, but after years of walking everywhere he goes, he's skeptical that anything will change.

Community leaders, however, insist that it will.

Of the four big problems pinpointed in the community assessment -- public transportation, affordable health care, substance abuse and family issues -- United Way of Southeast Missouri executive director Nancy Jernigan said public transportation is the easiest to address and identify because one organization already is established as the transportation leader in the county -- the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority.

If there are to be major changes in the way Cape Girardeau County views transportation, they will be undertaken mostly by the transit authority and Jeff Brune, the executive director.

However, the authority will be only as good as its support. Though the federal government provides most of the organization's budget, it won't pay up until there's a local match of 20 percent for capital costs and 50 percent for operational costs.

Public transportation has been targeted as a major need in the area for quite some time. A 1999 United Way study cited public transportation as an issue. In 2000, the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission concluded that transportation was a problem and recommended the county establish an authority.

Other organizations, Vision 2020 for instance, have broached the topic. Now the United Way and CCC have concluded again, through community leaders, that public transportation is the No. 1 problem in the Cape Girardeau County-Scott City area.

Area leaders, including Brune and Jernigan, are hoping another study -- the Big One -- will cure the region's transportation ailment.

Several local individuals are reading through six thick folders, trying to decide which firm -- companies from Ohio to Colorado that specialize in transportation issues have applied -- will get the job of determining the transportation needs and the feasibility and the action plan for a countywide system, including a fixed-route bus system in Cape Girardeau.

If anyone is familiar with the community's foot-dragging when it comes to taking on transportation problems it's Miki Gudermuth, the executive director of SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence.

Gudermuth, who has a disability, started SADI a decade ago because she was so frustrated with the lack of transit for disabled individuals.

"I've been here 15 years, and I've been on top of this issue for all those years, and I look from June fifth one year and June fifth to another year and we're still on the same page," she said. "I've never been the type of person to be on committees and not go anywhere. If I don't see movement, I'll move on."

Gudermuth says the United Way and CCC group is different. The people who are talking about changes are moving.

Finding faults

The flaws in the current transportation system, or lack thereof, are many. The transportation authority does not have the power to take over other transportation systems without their consent until or unless the tri-city region of Cape Girardeau, Scott City and Jackson reaches metropolitan status based on census figures. At that point, which many expect to happen by the next census, the authority will be mandated by the federal government to oversee transportation over the entire county.

As it stands now, the authority only oversees transit outside the city of Cape Girardeau. The authority can take customers into Cape Girardeau and can transport customers outside of Cape Girardeau but not from point-to-point inside the city.

The authority's 10 vans operate on a demand and response system. Customers phone, and a van picks them up. There are no fixed routes.

A federally-funded taxi coupon program subsidized by the city operates inside the city of Cape Girardeau. Seniors and disabled residents can purchase 14 tickets for $1 apiece. All others can buy the same amount for $2 apiece. Because the Federal Transit Administration does not want services duplicated, the transit authority can't do point-to-point in Cape Girardeau. Nor can the taxi coupons be used to take customers outside the city.

This setup of limited service is mirrored elsewhere in the community:

Southeast Missouri State University has a shuttle system that cannot take students off campus.

SADI can only service disabled individuals.

and the Workforce Investment Board can only provide transportation to people going to and from work.

The scenarios are confusing to the public. Each system is being run separately but all with the help of federal grants and in most cases the same federal grant.

Waiting to go

Brune has heard the public's scorn toward the county's public transportation system since he was hired as the authority's executive director in 2002.

The transit authority was formed in 2000 to group these organizations together; to make structure of the mess. Why, four years later, is transportation still the No. 1 problem in the area?

There are several reasons, he said.

First, the transit authority operated without an executive director for about a year. Until Brune was hired, no one was being paid to manage the system.

Brune says he spent most of his first year making sure the transit system was operating efficiently. He said there was a lot of catching up to do on mundane office things such as writing personnel policies. Meanwhile, under his watch, the transit authority's service has grown from about 17,000 trips to 30,000 trips per year.

Gradually, he began taking on a bigger-picture approach and started talking with various transportation groups about the possibility of merging services. He acknowledges that taxpayers in Cape Girardeau County aren't getting the most for their money.

"Over a million dollars for transit is disbursed to this county and it goes to too many providers," Brune said. "There needs to be better utilization of the funds that come into the county for transit, and I'm working on that stuff."

The biggest step that has been taken is the Missouri Department of Transportation's authorization through the FTA to fund the Cape Girardeau Area Transit Needs Assessment Study and Transit Development Plan, an attempt to address specific transportation needs.

The naysayers have "heard this before," Brune knows, but he emphatically asserts that this study will be different.

"The other studies did more of an inventory," he said. "They made minor recommendations, and one of those recommendations was to create a transit authority. What they didn't come up with was a plan. That's what this one will do."

One consulting firm's plan is scheduled to be chosen this week. The United Way's community assessment group focusing on transportation issues has come up with a vision that sets short- and long-term priorities. Jernigan said the purpose is to keep progressing and to hold the various organizations accountable.

"The city governments, county government and state government need to step to the plate and look more conscientiously at how they can support transportation in this community," Jernigan said.

The city of Cape Girardeau, mired in budget problems, will no doubt be a big player in the transportation decisions that lie ahead. Mayor Jay Knudtson said it's too early to tell what will happen but acknowledged that the taxi coupon program might need to be changed.

"There's an identifiable need for transportation, and I don't think anybody can dispute that," Knudtson said. He said all the entities think they know what should be done. "But I'm a big believer in a third-party assessment -- in this case in particular because it's not costing the city anything," he said.

In addition to seeking public funds, the transit authority is asking the private sector to help subsidize a program that will bring customers to businesses and employees to their jobs.

Once the existing transportation systems are coordinated, the next step is to make sure that employable people residing in Cape Girardeau County have transportation to work from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

June O'Dell's job at the Workforce Investment Board is to help people get to work. The board has a program in place that transports employees to Gilster-Mary Lee in Perryville, Mo., and back. In February, 101 people used the service, which is contracted through Kelley Transportation. O'Dell said the board would fund more trips to other factories if there were enough interest to guarantee 60 percent of the van's capacity on a daily basis.

The Workforce Investment Board also provides personal transportation through the taxi coupon program to individuals who qualify, based on income. Those individuals are guaranteed rides to work every morning.

"Transportation is a big barrier," she said. "You'd be surprised at the number of people who don't have a driver's license."

O'Dell said a countywide system would mean less confusion for clients, "but I'm worried about funding streams. We can't pay to take somebody to the doctor or shopping; we get grants to get people to and from work. So I don't know yet how all that will play out."

Benjamin Berry, who does not own a car, could be found Monday crossing the Interstate 55 exit walking toward Wal-Mart on foot. He lives on Aspen Street, a mile away.

"The transportation could be a little better," Berry said. "The city is growing, and it's a nice, clean city. Maybe two buses would be nice, one on each side of town."

Brune said he thinks the study will agree with Berry.

"With the city the size of Cape and with the county growing as fast as it is, the most efficient way to provide transportation is some sort of fixed-route system," Brune said. "It won't be the only way; it's going to be the combination of a lot of different things."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635