MODOT GRANTS $32,000 TO TRANSIT BOARD

JACKSON, Mo. -- Fueled by a $32,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority hopes to merge with a van service run by Jackson-based Cape County Transit Inc.

If the merger talks collapse, the authority will use the money to set up its own office, said Doug Richards, who chairs the five-member authority appointed a year ago by the Cape Girardeau County Commission.

The commission established the transit authority to improve public transportation services in the county.

Richards announced the grant funding Thursday, saying the grant is for a six-month period retroactive to July 1 and concluding Dec. 31. The county has chipped in $8,000 for a 20 percent local match.

Start-up costs

The grant will pay for an administrative assistant, a transit consultant, legal expenses and $14,000 in miscellaneous costs for office start-up costs, Richards said.

The authority anticipates spending $10,000 for a consultant and $8,000 each for an administrative assistant and legal expenses associated with the planned merger.

Richards said the authority already is working with consultant Larry Sims, a former MoDOT employee from Jefferson City, Mo. Sims follows Cornelius Henry, who previously advised the authority under a consulting contract with the county commission.

The Transit Authority plans to ask for another six-month grant from MoDOT to fund its operations through next June. That too will require additional funding from the county.

Richards said the Transit Authority wants to merge with the non-profit Cape County Transit to improve and expand services countywide.

The authority would initially run the subsidized transportation service from the small Cape County Transit office in Jackson's former city hall. Richards said the authority wants to add vehicles and staff. Expanded services could include a fixed-route system and longer hours of operation.

That could mean more competition for Kelley Transportation Co., which operates a taxi service in Cape Girardeau.

Cape County Transit transports residents of Jackson and rural Cape Girardeau County, including those with destinations in Cape Girardeau, and Cape Girardeau residents to Jackson, but it doesn't move Cape Girardeau residents within city limits.

That way it doesn't compete with the taxi service, but Richards said the van service would compete with Kelley for riders in Cape Girardeau if the Transit Authority takes control.

The taxi service's Terrence Kelley couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. He has state before that the county's transportation services can't be handled by a single service.

The Cape Girardeau market is a key to expanding transit services, say those involved in the county transit effort.

"The only way you can expand it is to go into Cape," said former Jackson mayor Carlton Meyer who serves on the Transit board.

Talks under way

Cape County Transit already has a successful operation, said Meyer.

Last year, it operated on a $130,000 budget, most of it funded by various government agencies including MoDOT.

Negotiations have been under way for several months between the Transit Authority and Cape County Transit's board of directors. Richards hopes the merger is finalized within a few months.

Both sides say two things likely will have to happen for the merger to proceed: Two members of the Cape County Transit board would have to be added to the Transit Authority, and the van service's 12 full- and part-time employees would have to keep their jobs.

Richards said the authority isn't looking to fire people. "I do not foresee any personnel changes, just additions to present staff," he said.

Dareld Davis, project manager for Cape County Transit, said the merger talks sparked anxiety among employees.

Still, Davis said the merger talks haven't slowed down the van service, which operates a curb-to-curb general public transportation service, mostly from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

"We are running close to 100 trips a day," Davis said. That includes taking welfare-to-work riders to factory jobs in Perryville, Mo., under a government contract.

A majority of its regular riders are elderly or handicapped. They use the service for shopping trips, medical appointments and other business.

The cost is $1 to $2 for a one-way trip. Non-handicapped and people younger than 60 must pay a full fare, which is double the standard donation or as much as $8 a person for a Jackson-Cape Girardeau round trip.