Portage County leaders gathered again earlier this week for the second and possibly the final summit to address the problems plaguing the public transportation system.
Organized by State Rep. Gail Pavliga, attendees of the Oct. 16 meeting included Ravenna Police Chief Jeff Wallis, county recorder Lori Calcei, numerous representatives from an array of social service agencies and health providers, PARTA, NEOMED and economic development directors from Aurora and Ravenna.
All agreed the main issue is not a lack of transportation options but that people simply don’t know about them, or about the fact that Job and Family Services of Portage County is creating a transportation guide that will be on its website.
Not knowing that they could call 211, United Way’s hotline for essential community services, people could well be stuck at home when transportation is available, said Denise Baba, PARTA’s communications and public advocacy adviser.
JFS could distribute transportation options via flyers at local county nonprofit agencies, through outreach to township trustees and through inserts in people’s water bills, various attendees suggested.
The challenge of getting to work is one factor in the multi-faceted labor shortage.
Industrial parks in Aurora house more than 40 employers with over 6,000 employees, said Aurora Economic Development Director Holly Harris Bane.
“It is beyond my comprehension that we have no bus service in this area,” she said. “There’s no way to get those workers to us.”
Acknowledging that Portage County Job and Family Services can provide clients on its caseload with rides does not help the average off-the-street applicant, Harris Bane said.
Echoing Harris Bane, Ravenna Economic Development Director Dennis West said some employers have offered to pick up employees who must start work early or stay late and/or to provide them with bus fare. The tactics don’t always work.
“There has to be some responsibility on the part of these people. If they want to be employed, they have to be willing to get to the bus stop,” he said.
Lack of transportation also impacts people dealing with Portage County’s court system.
“Our folks can’t get to court. They walk on Infirmary [Road],” Portage County Juvenile/Probate Court Judge Patricia Smith said, adding that she was able to secure temporary offices for probation and other services in Ravenna. Those sites allow people who are unable to use PARTA’s door-to-door service to still comply with their court-ordered appointments.
The door-to-door service requires people to call ahead, which can be a roadblock, Smith said.
“We’re dealing with people who don’t necessarily have the ability to plan ahead,” she said.
The conversation turned to access to health care, with representatives from Direction Home, part of a statewide network that serves older Ohioans, saying same-day appointment providers such as NEOMED’s various health clinics don’t help if a person without transportation has an unforeseen medical issue.
Ted St. John, founder of Hope Town and Hope on Wheels, which provides people with rides to medical and treatment appointments, said all agencies have a need to get their clients where they need to go. If funding could be made available, the agencies could forge partnerships that would benefit everyone, he said.
“For us, it’s staff and it’s payroll,” he said, envisioning an automated system that could transport seniors to and from Coleman Health Services’ adult daycare program, to cite one example.
To increase access to services, including health care, JFS is seeking a Healthy Aging grant. If approved, it will allow JFS to fund a pilot program identifying seniors most in need of transportation and provide it for them.
“We already know there’s a core group that isn’t getting access to services,” JFS Director Kellijo Jeffries said.
Seniors aren’t the only demographic in need of transportation.
Aurora schools Superintendent Mike Roberto noted his district’s difficulty in attracting school bus drivers and acknowledged that Aurora schools are not unique in this struggle.
Since school bus drivers only need to be 18 years old, districts could recruit recent high school graduates and train them. Also, college students who may not wish to work full time could serve as substitute drivers, Roberto said.
Districts could also hire full-time substitute drivers who could cover all routes and who would ride along with other drivers to learn new routes if they were not needed on a given day, he said.
Aurora schools already pays for driver training and is considering drawing up a contract demanding reimbursement if an employee quits after qualifying for their commercial drivers license. It happens, he said.
“Nobody wants to be a bus driver partly because of the kids, so we need to get other adults on there, too,” he said.
Perhaps parent volunteers could be recruited, and the district could cover their training costs, Roberto suggested.
As he did during the Sept. 11 forum, PARTA operations and facilities director Brian Trautman highlighted the organization’s need for at least 50 drivers.
To alleviate PARTA’s employee shortage, drivers with certain criminal records could be recruited, Trautman said, careful to note that the nature of the offense and time served would have to be scrutinized.
With no definitive solutions identified, attendees dispersed with the promise of JFS’s online transportation guide and its plan to host two job fairs, both aimed at reducing the labor shortage in Portage County’s transportation sector. One will be held Nov. 30, with the other on Dec. 11. Both will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at the OhioMeansJobs center at 253 S. Chestnut St. in Ravenna.
Employers ready to hire drivers will be on hand, and people seeking training opportunities to get their CDLs are welcome. Contact OMJ at 330-296-2841 for more information.
JFS staff members said the events will be advertised on the radio, through local and social media and via the county’s many agencies and nonprofits.
Pavliga, who hosted the two forums, said it is enough that the transportation guide and transportation job fairs are scheduled. If a third forum meeting is necessary, one will be scheduled, she said.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.