Tuesday, Locklin Technical Institute hosted a meeting on the need for public transportation presented by Dr. Karen Barber, president of Santa Rosa County Bridges out of Poverty. Attending Santa Rosa County Commissioner Don Salter, who voted in the minority to continue the county’s public transportation service in 2012, said he believes the number one reason the BOCC cancelled the original Santa Rosa County Transportation service back then was the lack of understanding. Santa Rosa County Bridges out of Poverty only began in 2012 and Salter said business, educators, and churches didn’t communicate well enough with the commission at the time.
In addition to Salter, leaders in the City of Milton, Santa Rosa County Commission, business, and education attended the meeting. Through Barber’s presentation she reiterated transportation being the number one barrier to education, employment, access to healthcare, and housing. Speakers in the aforementioned fields of government, business, and education bolstered Barber’s argument.
Shawn Ward, transportation planner for SRC, began with available means of public transportation: Para Transit, Vets to VA, and Ride On. Para Transit serves medical and non-medical transportation services for the Transportation Disadvantaged community. Ward said most of the funding for the service comes from Medicaid but the money tends to run out by the end of the month.
Vets to VA exclusively serves military veterans who need transportation to the Veterans Affairs Joint Ambulatory Care Center (JACC) in Pensacola. They run, Ward said, Tuesday and Thursday.
Ride On is a carpooling service paid for by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) connecting people who work near each other. The idea, Ward said, is to call Ride On and they’ll connect people to those already traveling to Escambia or Okaloosa Counties.
However, Ward’s largest point was funding by FDOT for transportation going to SRC’s neighboring counties. He said the county would need to provide a match to get the funding again for a transportation service in the county, but Barber noted the match amounts to $300,000 a year, or $25,000 a month. “That’s doable,” she said.
Salter said the match could be the biggest obstacle with the county’s recent budget problems such as the loss of the Small County Outreach Program (SCOP) funding.
Steve Williams, manager of Wal-Mart in Pace, supported returning public transportation. He said he had a lot of customers using the service which ran in 2010 for two years. One of the obstacles he said they ran into was spending a lot of time on the bus with cold products.
Major Bob Johnson with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office also spoke at the meeting. He said when high school graduates don’t have transportation to get to work or secondary education, “They get discouraged and stay at home and then become society’s problem. It all ties together.” He also talked about pedestrian accidents. “People on bikes and walking get run over, just people trying to walk to the store.”
Pastor Brian Nall of Ferris Hill Baptist Church spoke on the steps the faith community has underway as suggested by SRC Commissioner Bob Cole last summer.
“I can attest to the need out there.” He said in many churches, vehicles sit dormant during the week, which could solve some community problems. June 15, 6:30 p.m. at the Ferris Hill Baptist Church, Nall will host a faith based transportation summit. “We want to brainstorm together.” He said many churches he contacted already ask about insurance and drivers. “We want to lay those questions on the table and see what we can do to help.”
Barber said last summer the SRC commissioners asked her to show the need in the community for public transportation and she said she’s worked to do so. She said they asked her to look into a faith-based service and Nall’s work is moving to meet this request. Commissioner Don Salter, who attended the meeting, said, “Bridges eventually needs to share their work with the Board of County Commissioners. Show the boxes they’ve checked and make a request to the (BOCC) to redevelop transportation based on the needs.”
Contact Barber at BarberK@santarosa.k12.fl.us for more information. She also has a form letter developed by Nancy Model, the former SRC Transportation Planner, designed to go to the SRC BOCC showing support for reinstating public transportation and a place to sign. Read on at www.srpressgazette.com for more on this story.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Bridges tackles public transportation needs