RIDES FOR ELDERLY

The Cape Girardeau County Commission has a good suggestion: A pooling of all the public transportation services operating in the county would provide more efficient service and better meet the needs of people who need transportation.

For years an assortment of agencies, churches and a few businesses have been providing public transportation for elderly people in the county, but the needs of too many of the riders haven't really been met. It, therefore, came as no surprise to the commission when a recent survey done by the Community Caring Council's transportation committee showed a need to provide a more efficient transportation system for the elderly in Cape Girardeau County.

The county commission hopes a plan can be put together to better serve those who need the transportation by making it available so that they can get where they need to go when they need to get there.

To do so, the commission last week asked two representatives of the Community Caring Council's transportation committee to draw up a proposal to put all of the transportation services funded through the county Senior Citizens Service Tax under a single administration. The tax generates between $250,000 and $300,000 annually, and the county allocates about $80,000 for vehicle purchases each year to help some of the agencies that provide transportation for the elderly.

Barbara Stribling, president of Community Caring Council and chairman of the council's transportation committee, and Ellie Knight, director of the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties, will work on the plan. They hope to have it completed by mid-June.

The county commissioners called upon their help after hearing complaints from senior county residents about not being able to get transportation when they need it. They also expressed a need for some type of administrative oversight to handle distribution of the Senior Citizens Service Tax funds that go for transportation services.

As it now works, a combination of federal, state and county money goes to the various agencies and groups that provide transportation services. Those agencies, some of which serve only the clientele they are designed to serve, must separately buy, maintain and insure vehicles. They run their own schedules, and much of the time the vehicles are idle when they could be in use.

The commission and providers of services agree that a more efficient system by pooling resources would better meet needs of elderly people in the county. A pooling of resources coupled with administrative oversight of vehicle coordination, maintenance, scheduling and funding would greatly enhance the services being offered, and each of the agencies offering transportation services would be better off by it.