The poverty rate of 41 percent in Santa Rosa County is no secret. Thursday, Commissioner Jim Melvin before the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) asked Dr. Karen Barber of Bridges out of Poverty what determines poverty level. She said, “It is $24,000 for a family of four.” The BOCC heard impassioned testimony by Barber as well as other representatives of the community concerned with connecting people to critical resources. By the end of Barber’s presentation, the BOCC moved to tackle the biggest issue facing the underserved in the county: the lack of transportation. According to Barber, and graduates of Bridges’ Getting Ahead program, the lack of transportation is the number one barrier in Santa Rosa County to education, employment, health care, and housing.
After giving a brief introduction to Bridges out of Poverty, Barber moved into transportation beginning with examples of local residents. “Shania is a 17-year-old student at Milton High School. She is a homeless, unaccompanied youth. Despite her challenges, she is dual-enrolled at Pensacola State College and taking classes at MHS. To get to class, Shania had to walk down Hwy 90 2 miles one-way to the PSC, Milton campus in any kind of weather. We eventually got a bike donated for her to get to school,” Barber said.
She told the story of a man named Martin who receives help through Family Promise. She said he works to support his family, but cannot afford a car, so he rides his bike from Alice St. in Milton to the Maritime Park in Pensacola, 24.5 miles one way.
Last, she told the story of Jessica, a young lady who lives in Navarre and is 7 months pregnant. Barber said she recently missed an appointment with her obstetrician. “It turns out she, too, was riding a bike to her doctor’s appointment. She missed it. Her bike had a flat. The next day she rode her bike to her OB in the pouring rain.”
Barber shared statistics, as well, from the health department. She said 30 percent of the mothers who have WIC appointments, (Women, Infants, and Children), at the health department miss their appointments many due to transportation. Barber said the lack of transportation makes getting to the doctor, to college, to work, to the pharmacy, to places to get goods and services, difficult.
Donna Christopher of Santa Rosa Adult School said, “Students and potential students frequently remind me the lack of transportation is a major barrier to their education.” She told the story of a student who rode his bike from East Milton to Locklin Tech and eventually earned a degree in welding and is now employed. This was a rare positive story, she said, and asked the BOCC to reconsider some form of public transportation.
Meredith Powers works with the Workforce Investment Act through the SRC school board connecting in school and out of school youth to employment. She said many youth could not take certain jobs or lost them because they were stuck walking or riding bikes.
“Our county seems to be spread out and our students either live within city limits and they can’t go to those industrial areas, or they may live in the outlying areas and are unable to get into the city for those jobs that they need.”
Family physician and president of the Rural Health Network, David Smith said, “Nationwide, 25 percent live in a rural area, but only 10 percent of physicians do, and 0 percent of specialists.” He said a survey on residents in these areas shows their number one concern to getting healthcare is transportation. “What we need is a transportation model to get people from the north rural areas of the county to better access to healthcare and the tests they need.”
Commissioner Lane Lynchard said, “People don’t understand how important transportation is and how many members of our population don’t have access to transportation. I wish that same presentation with that passion would have been given a couple of years ago when we had the vote to continue or discontinue the bus service.” He said he came on the losing end of that vote. One suggestion the group brought before the board was expanding ECAT service and Okaloosa County Transit into SRC. Lynchard said the idea was worth exploring.
Commissioner Bob Cole and Commissioner Jim Melvin as well as the late Commissioner Jim Williamson voted against continuing the bus service at the October 25, 2012 SRC BOCC meeting. Cole said it was one of the hardest things he had to do as commissioner. He said they were unsure if federal funding would retain and the cost per rider wasn’t where he thought it should be. He said he’d be willing to reinvestigate the program and suggested looking into ride cards to control system abuse. He also suggested looking into the county arranging transportation for doctors and specialists going to patients.
Salter said he continues to support revisiting transportation. “I think possibly a lot of us didn’t realize the far fetching effect it had into our school systems, into healthcare. I’m all for it,” he said.
Sam Mullins, Santa Rosa County resident, speaking before the board, among others who supported transportation for healthcare and job needs, suggested a partnership with county churches to create a ride network with county support. Commissioner Jim Melvin suggested Barber contact the Santa Rosa Pastor’s Association. After hearing from the public, the BOCC unanimously moved to have county staff work with Barber’s group and others to come up with a solution for Santa Rosa County’s transportation needs.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: County considers restarting public transportation