Iron County to seek ARPA funds

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Hurley — With a projected $13,000 shortfall for 2022, the Iron County Transportation Coordinating Committee will seek additional funds from the county following a Wednesday meeting.

The committee approved a $109,000 request from the County Elderly and Disabled Transportation Assistance Program (85.21 Grant). The items within the request include $55,000 for Highline Corporation, $4,000 for volunteer drivers and $50,000 for the county Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC).

The $13,133 shortfall with the 85.21 fund request will be addressed at the next county finance meeting, according to Opal Roberts, who was reelected the committee chair at the meeting, along with Tanner Hiller as vice chair. The 85.21 fund allocation of $79,989 would be expected to have a $15,978 county match. 

“What I’m proposing is that, at the county board meeting, during the budget hearing, that we request another $15,000 for transportation, hopefully out of the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act),” Roberts said.

Other committee members present stated that the ARPA was specifically designed for situations with essential services such as this shortfall. Transportation is not cost-effective with pandemic requirements allowing for limited seating, more trips and more hours for driving and sanitizing — but the service is still essential.

The members included Daniel Soine, Tom Innes and Erick Nasi, county veterans service officer, along with Donna Reinerio of Highline Corporation, county human services director Cally Bucknell, and program director Becky Rein who presented the budget to the committee.

The county approved $95,866 of the $103,200 transportation budget request in 2021. The budget included $46,333 for the Highline Corporation contract, $3,400 for volunteer drivers and $46,133 for the ADRC.

The trust fund balance is $16,492, according to Rein. The plan is to use the funds for maintenance and tires for the 15-passenger vans as that would benefit all users, she said.

The Bay Area Rural Transit contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of 2021, according to Bucknell. Ridership never really gained traction as the service was initiated just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It just never got off the ground,” Bucknell said. “We would really like to explore this option again.”

An additional concern with BART was that passengers needed to exit the bus when entering another county or municipality with its own federally subsidized service and transfer to their buses, she said. 

BART can only do scheduled service rides, she said. Most of the county transportation clients are in need of individual services and to destinations not on the BART routes, she said.

An $18,000 budget item to provide radios for the drivers will be presented to the county finance committee to try and purchase through other fund sources. The drivers are currently using cell phones to communicate and the radios were to ensure coverage in areas with no cellular service. 

Hiller said that the radio cost estimate seemed high. It is worth investigating to find more competitive prices and used equipment for a tower repeater, he said.

With the advent of 16 new cellular towers in the county, cell phone coverage will only be improving in the coming years, said Tom Innes of Saxon. 

The county will contract with Veyo for non-emergency medical transportation services starting Nov. 1. The current contract with Medical Transportation Management Inc. will end at that time.

The committee said the next meeting would be scheduled sometime in July 2022.