Jan. 11—A newly formed advisory committee has been tasked with developing a new four-year coordinated plan for public and human services transportation for Vigo and Clay counties.
The committee, which met Wednesday at the Vigo County Public Library, will advise the Terre Haute Metropolitan Planning Organization. The committee includes representatives from agencies such as Western Indiana Community Action Agency Inc., Wabash Valley Recovery Center, Thrive West Central, Reach Services, Will Center, Sycamore Services, Terre Haute Transit Utility and Clay County Indiana Council on Aged and Aging.
It is the first step needed to obtain federal funds for transportation services through the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is slated to receive more than $11.95 million in federal funding from 2022 to 2026.
Of that, about $1.4 million is targeted for enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities.
That funding can be used for traditional services such as buses and vans, wheelchair lifts, ramps, transit-related information technology systems such as scheduling/routing/and one-call systems and for non-traditional projects such as volunteer driver programs, travel training and improving signage or way-finding technology.
“It is for the community as a whole, not just the disabled and low income, and is a document for providers to use to help coordinate their services so that they are not competing with each other or over providing a service or all thinking someone else is doing something that is not occurring,” said Jeremy Weir, director of transportation planning for the Terre Haute Metropolitan Planning Organization.
“Coordination is the key word in the plan. Things can slip through the cracks in the community and if you don’t have them (plans) and don’t have them in a published document, it just doesn’t happen,” Weir said.
“We will look at the disadvantaged population to figure out what the needs are and what gaps in services occur, but also look at this as why isn’t public transportation being used as a higher choice in how you get around.”
Maria Bonilla-Thompson, director of family development and medical services at WICAA, said for the low-income sector, public transportation “does not go to either one of our industrial parks, which is where they can make the most money. It doesn’t make sense because one bus [on the south end of Vigo County] goes to Ivy Tech Community College and it is only one or two more miles to get to the industrial park.
“Secondly, we only have one bus line an hour? If you have to switch routes, it could potentially take you two hours to get to work … and [those] are some of the barriers that low income and others face,” Bonilla-Thompson said.
“If we want people to be independent and pay their own way, let’s get them out to the industrial parks where they are looking for workers.”
Another issue the committee raised is the lack of coordinating transportation among other agencies, as agencies lack a centralized dispatch or a communication plan with a central phone listing for services to transport seniors or disabled when one agency cannot fulfil a transportation need.
Robert DeCamp with the Clay county Council on Aged and Aging Inc. said many of his clients have physicians in Vigo County, but he cannot transport people from Clay County into Vigo County.
“So do I call someone in Vigo County to come pick them up at the county line?” DeCamp said.
Weir said the Terre Haute MPO is aware of that problem and is working to resolve that issue.
In 2020, Gov. Eric Holcomb placed the MPO, formed in 1974, under the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation. The MPO previously had been a part of the Western Indiana Economic Development District.
Kimberly Gianos, with Thrive West Central, was elected as the committee’s president, with Danny Wayne Beemer of The Will Center elected as vice chair.
The MPO next will issue a survey, distributed by the committee as well as other agencies, to help determine other transportation needs and will hold one of two proposed public hearings before the committee meets again on April 12.
Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter @TribStarHoward.
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