TRANSIT DIRECTOR URGED

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County needs a transit director, members of the county's new Transit Advisory Committee said Thursday.

More funding and better coordinated transit services are needed, committee members said during a meeting in the County Administrative Building.

Committee member Terrence Kelley operates a taxi company in Cape Girardeau. Kelley said he has more vehicles than he can operate because of a shortage of drivers.

He suggested the county needs a centralized dispatching system that makes good use of all of the transportation providers and available vehicles such as nursing home vans.

"I think there are enough vehicles in the county and enough transportation providers," he said. "It could be a system second to none."

Committee member Glenda Hoffmeister worked on a previous ad hoc committee that studied the transit issue. "The idea is to coordinate what we do have," she said.

But Hoffmeister said there also is a need to expand transportation services into the county's rural areas.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission appointed the advisory committee and a five-member Transit Authority earlier this summer. The committee is designed to advise the Transit Authority.

Hoffmeister said formation of the authority will allow the county to obtain additional transportation funding. She said such funding is essential to improve and expand transit services.

Most transit funding comes from the federal government. The money is funneled to transit providers through the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Hoffmeister said a transit director could help secure a larger share of the funding.

Committee members said they are willing to offer advice, but they want to know how the Transit Authority wants to proceed. The Transit Authority is scheduled to meet on Sept. 7.

Committee member Miki Gudermuth suggested the committee get the opinions and suggestions of area residents who rely on taxis and van services. Gudermuth said those who use those services don't feel they have been consulted in the county's latest effort to address their needs. "They don't have a lot of faith in it," she said.

Gudermuth said the advisory committee should listen to what the public wants.

But Committee Chairman Jess Hopple said the committee needs to be looking at solutions rather than simply rehashing complaints.

Gudermuth brought taxi rider Zeke Abrams to the meeting. The Cape Girardeau man is disabled. He doesn't have a car. He depends on taxis to get to the doctor and go shopping.

Abrams told the committee he sometimes has to wait a long time for a taxi. A trip to the doctor and back home can take three to four hours, he said.

Abrams said Cape Girardeau needs a bus system. "Let's get some buses for this city and catch up with the rest of the nation," he said. "Then I can live and breathe easier."

Hoffmeister said a fixed-route system could be considered, but it would be very costly.

But Kelley said a bus system isn't economical and "won't fly." The subsidized taxi system in Cape Girardeau works better than would any bus system, he said.