Transit authority to offer senior coupons

Senior citizens will have a cheaper way to take care of pressing errands under a new coupon program announced Thursday by the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority.

Beginning June 6, county residents 60 and older can purchase up to eight coupons a month at $3 each that will allow them to travel one way from any point in the county to any other location, interim executive director Tom Mogelnicki said Thursday. The coupons must be purchased in advance to take advantage of the program, he said.

The program is designed to use the $40,000 in new funding for the transit agency approved last year by the Senior Citizens Service Fund Board. The money was set aside from local property tax funds to supplement the transit money provided by the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging.

That money, which comes from federal grants, pays for trips for medical services and nutrition needs for senior citizens and people with disabilities. The transit authority receives $63,000 annually from the Agency on Aging, but the monthly allocation usually runs out about two weeks into every month, Mogelnicki said.

From 150 to 600

When the transit authority first started providing rides under contract with the Agency on Aging three years ago, 150 riders signed up for the program, Mogelnicki said. "Now we have 600 signed up and the same amount of money," he said. The riders "want to know why I have no rides."

The new program will provide about 600 subsidized rides each month, Mogelnicki said.

The new funding from the Senior Citizens Service Fund Board was approved last year, boosting the board's contribution to the transit authority to $95,000 this year. The coupon program seems like a reasonable way to use the money, dramatically reducing the cost of a ride, said board chairman Dale Rauh of Jackson.

"It is going to be a boost to seniors because the current rates were out of line," Rauh said. "What the tax board was trying to accomplish was bringing in a more reasonable rate for seniors."

Under current rates, the cost of a trip from Jackson to Cape Girardeau is about $10, with a ride from outlying towns in the county to Cape Girardeau costing $15, Rauh said.

'It is worth a try'

The senior fund board money doesn't have the restrictions on the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging money, he noted. Senior citizens could, if they chose, use the coupons to take them back and forth from church four times a month.

"It is worth a try for the remaining seven months of the year," Rauh said. "We will evaluate it at the end of the year and then decide whether to continue."

To use the program, senior citizens can purchase their coupons at the transit authority offices, 937 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, on Wednesdays during normal office hours. A transit authority representative also will be at the Cape Girardeau and Jackson senior centers on the first Thursday of each month from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Mogelnicki said he is unsure of the first sale date for the coupons. "The only thing I am waiting on is the coupons," he said. "As soon as I get them I can start selling them."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126