The City of Milton is taking the first steps to bring transportation options to those in need. According to Dr. Karen Barber, president of the Santa Rosa County chapter of Bridges out of Poverty, one of the biggest barriers Santa Rosa County residents face in accessing education, employment, and healthcare is transportation. Currently, he work is in its infancy with the initial steps being to identify what resources are available, while the goals are to reinstate public transportation from the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners and make known private and volunteer options.
Tuesday morning, Santa Rosa Bridges out of Poverty held a transportation provider meeting at the SRC Public Works building. Barber said experts in transportation were there as well as members of the faith community and the City of Milton. Its purpose, Barber said, was “to assemble the various entities currently providing transportation to determine available services, begin a dialogue that can lead to a greater awareness of the current services, identify the gap in services, and to identify possible funding leading to the expansion and implementation of transportation in Santa Rosa County to improve the quality of life for citizens of Santa Rosa County, as well as for various stakeholders including business and employers.”
Thursday afternoon, the city’s LEAP Committee met with Barber and Randy Jorgenson, city planner as well as Milton City Councilwomen Ashley Lay, Milton Committee Chairman Councilwoman Mary Ellen Johnson, Milton City Manager Brian Watkins, Director of Workforce Education Charlin Knight, Dr. Anthea Amos Dean of Pensacola State College’s Milton Campus, and Milton Mayor Wesley Meiss in attendance. Barber reviewed some information presented Tuesday and the committee discussed the city’s part in moving forward with transportation concerns.
Tuesday, Barber gave two examples supporting public transportation. The first, she said, was a hypothetical graduate from Jay High School who, without a car, can’t get to additional training and eventually may end up on public assistance instead of being able to get the training he needs to go to work and be self sufficient.
The second story she told was of a real student who attended Pace High School and was living with his aunt. She said circumstances changed and he had to move in with his cousin in Pensacola. “He took ECAT from W Street to UWF and walked from UWF to Pace High School, then caught a bus from Pace High School to Locklin Tech where he was getting trained. He's going to graduate in May with an industry certification from Locklin and a high school diploma, and he'll be ready to go to work. He could have easily been discouraged and dropped out.”
At the meeting, Shawn Ward, Santa Rosa County transportation planning director, presented on a 2008 transportation feasibility study. Barber said Nancy Model presented on the Job Access Reverse Commute grant, what funded the transit pilot program from 2010 to 2012, which the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners (SRC BOCC) at the time voted to cancel. She said Gloria Neal with First Transit, Escambia County Area Transit (ECAT) operator, spoke on faith-based transit solutions. Finally, she said Joanne Landgraff spoke on the Transportation Disadvantaged program operated now by Tri-County Community Council.
One of the statistics Ward brought forth Tuesday and Barber reiterated Thursday was the county’s support for public transportation during the 2008 feasibility study. Ward said, “It identified that 80 percent of respondents were in favor of public transportation.”
Another telling data point Barber brought up was the cost to the county of the original transportation program: $2,000 a month. Jorgenson said the statistic was surprising considering how much money the county works with annually, about $75 million.
Barber said right now, there are some limited transportation services in the county: the para-transit service by Tri-County Community Council, the Vets2VA program, and Caring Hearts. Tri-County’s service, Barber said, is the only one of the three riders can use for education purposes or reaching employment. She said anyone is eligible for those who do not have transportation and it’s not based on income eligibility. However, with limited funding for the service she said, “When funds are gone, they’re gone.”
During Thursday’s SRC BOCC meeting, the commissioners moved to change the lease agreement with Tri-County adding two vehicles for a total of six for the disadvantaged door-to-door program.
The Vets2VA program and Caring Hearts are both medical based services. As previously reported, Vets2VA assists local veterans with no transportation who need medical care by transporting them to the VA clinic. “Caring Hearts,” Barber said, “provides limited transportation for folks who have cancer going through treatment.”
In addition to determining what transportation resources are available, a related goal is to determine what federal funding is available and seek other sources of funding as well. For example, Barber said they discovered “in Tallahassee, part of public transportation is funded by colleges and universities in Tallahassee. It’s built into their budget.” Florida State and Tallahassee Community College, she said, contribute something towards public transportation. “The fact is in this day and age (public transportation) has to be supported by more than just the fare the rider pays.”
On the faith front, Barber said many churches have vans going unused during the week. “Pastor Brian Nall (Ferris Hill Baptist Church) is meeting with Gloria Neal and they're going to explore and connect with some faith-based organizations successfully running faith-based transportation.”
One of the next steps, Barber said, was looking into what resources are available in the county. “Randy Jorgensen with the City of Milton is going to assist with conducting an inventory in our communities how many church vans and buses are available for use. In the county, how many vans with chairlifts does county own that could be used?” She said Ward will help create an inventory of the stock to make available.
Bridges’ interest in transportation falls serendipitously with the City of Milton’s own investigation. Jorgenson, city planning director, said “We've been having conversations here in recent history about that subject and stood up a committee…to look at some broad societal issues within the City of Milton and surrounding area, and one of those is the need for transportation. As a result, the timing of this gathering was ideal as that committee’s work moves forward.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Public transportation moving again