PELL CITY — Countywide transportation could be in place in St. Clair County by 2004 if a proposed plan is approved by Pell City and county agencies.Several Pell City and county agency representatives met at City Hall Monday to hear a proposal developed by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham and the University Transportation Center for Alabama.
The proposed plan would call for existing agencies to share their transportation vans, buses and drivers to help get a growing number of people to doctor’s appointments, pharmacies, grocery stores and transportation for other errands.
Agencies like the St. Clair Program on Aging, the Arc of St. Clair County and Bridge Builders/Boys and Girls Club of Pell City would keep and maintain their vans, but would use idle time to help the general public run errands.
The agencies will be able to set a fee for taking people from one place to another, and would also get federal funds to help with maintenance and drivers costs, said Jay Lindly of the University Transportation Center.
"Under (a program of the Federal Transit Administration), we can group different service agencies together," Lindly said. "Typically the riders pay something as well. Some counties charge $1 or $2."
Funds would also come from the United Way, local government and agencies that contract to use the transportation service.
The linchpin of the program beyond funding would be a coordinator, hired to oversee scheduling of transportation between the agencies for the general public. The person would also develop ride-sharing programs with larger cities, like Birmingham and van-pooling programs as well, according to Steve Ostaseski of the Regional Planning Commission.
The job would be paid for by federal funds.
The coordinator would help agencies use the idle time of their vans to give rides to people within a 7 to 10 mile radius of their normal operating center.
"A bus would bring clients to a town and if there is excess capacity, the coordinator would arrange for the van to be used in that town," Ostaseski said.
For example, a van taking seniors to the Pell City Senior Center at 9 a.m. but not obligated to senior center transportation until 2 p.m. the same day would be used to shuttle the general public to doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping trips and other errands.
The funds are available to "non-urbanized" areas of less than 50,000 people, Lindly said.
"This idea for transportation can be used for towns in the county because all of them are less than 50,000 people," he said.
Eventually, private providers could also be thrown into the transportation mix, allowing even more options for public transportation in the county, Lindly said.
"In the Birmingham area now, there are eight or nine private providers that provide medical transportation," he said.
The plus of the proposal is two-fold, according to Pell City Mayor Guin Robinson said.
"Nobody has to give up or change their pattern of use right now," Robinson said. "Agencies have the potential to get extra revenue and the citizens benefit from the transportation."
And transportation is badly needed, said Linda Kendrick, director of the St. Clair Program on Aging.
"I get calls all the time from people who are willing to pay to get to the doctor," Kendrick said. "People think there are no people out there who need rides to doctors’ offices, but there is a need."
The next step in making the proposal a reality is putting together geographic analysis and coming up with cost figures and a rough fee schedule for each agency, Lindly said.
Ostaseski said preliminary proposals could be finished in time for a Dec. 18 meeting.
The boards of each agency would then be able to look at and possibly approve the proposals. After that, the St. Clair County congressional delegation could go to bat to get the federal funding, he said.
And St. Clair County's air of cooperation between agencies will likely make the program not only viable, but a great success, Robinson said.
"I know of no agencies that are stronger on cooperation in any other county in the state," he said.
