Willie Lavender doesn’t drive, so he relies on the Dial-A-Bus service to get around.

The 68-year-old depends on the bus to get to the grocery store, to doctors’ appointments and to his cancer treatments at the Baptist Cancer Center-Golden Triangle, Columbus. The bus picks him up at his doorstep each morning and returns him to his apartment each afternoon, all free of charge.

After March 28, Lavender and other Columbus seniors will have to find a different ride.

Dial-A-Bus, a free public transportation service operated by the Lowndes County Council on Aging, is closing after 54 years. Its board voted unanimously in February to cease operations and sent written notice of those intentions to the city March 13. The organization’s home-delivered meals program, which serves fewer than 10 residents, will also cease.

Nan Lott, who has served as both president and board member of LCCOA for more than 20 years, said the decision to close comes from a multitude of reasons, all centered around insufficient funding.

“Money is the main reason,” Lott said. “We’ve struggled for years with funding.”

LCCOA receives funding from three primary sources: the city, county and United Way of the Golden Triangle Region. The city allocates $24,500 annually, and the county allocates $27,000 through United Way to be dispersed monthly to the council. United Way historically has allocated additional funding to the program, though Executive Director of United Way Renee Sanders did not disclose the amount.

United Way requires agencies to reapply for funding each year. LCCOA treasurer Bob Crigler said he was not aware of the deadline to reapply for 2025 funding, which resulted in the loss of that sum.

As a result, Sanders said, the funding helped United Way support four additional agencies.

New location

This loss of funding comes at a time when Dial-A-Bus has been forced to relocate operations from its current city-owned building at 161 Maple St., where it has operated rent-free since opening in 1971.

The building has been in a state of disrepair for some time, with only part of the building operational. After suffering extensive roof damage following several storms last year and after receiving quotes from contractors, Building Official Kenny Wiegel said in September that partial repairs would cost nearly $250,000. This led city officials to instead vote to demolish the building once LCCOA could find a new location to operate Dial-A-Bus.

“The main thing was that our building was falling down,” Lott said. “The city decided they were going to tear it down. We tried to find another place to go, but we don’t receive enough funding to pay a lot of rent. We had no place to go.”

Although LCCOA scouted several new locations to continue operations, the organization could not find one with suitable space and affordable rent.

But the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District offered LCCOA free office space on Gardner Boulevard, said Executive Director Rudy Johnson, and even offered to take on the home-delivered meals program.

“Anything to keep them afloat,” said Johnson, adding GTPDD has also financially supported LCCOA programs since they began.

The space GTPDD offered the organization was too small, Pickett said.

“There was not sufficient room over there for us to bring file cabinets,” she said. “Basically, they didn’t have enough room.”

Reduced ridership, retiring director

Also factoring into the decision to cease operations is the retirement of Dial-A-Bus’s longtime director Marilyn Pickett. She has served with the organization for 26 years and as executive director for the last 15 years.

“To replace someone with her experience, we would have to pay a bigger salary than she had,” Lott said.

LCCOA board attorney Corky Smith said that Pickett’s work with the council was a “labor of love,” and that it would be nearly impossible to find a replacement willing to work full-time with the same pay.

“It was almost a volunteer position on her behalf,” Smith said.

Ridership with the service has also decreased substantially over the years. At its peak, Dial-A-Bus transported around 15 to 18 riders every day, sometimes more, Pickett said. Currently, the service serves only five riders total, with Lavender being one of them.

With such a significant decline in ridership and insufficient funding to find a new location and executive director, Lott said it was not “advantageous” for the service to remain open.

“I hate that we are having to do this,” Lott said. “The program just couldn’t exist any longer. We just didn’t have the funding, and I’m sorry. I feel for the people that use this facility. We did help a lot of people for a lot of years, and it was a good program.”

‘I’m concerned for my health’

Those reasons don’t help Lavender much.

Unable to read or write, he said he must rely on others to help him navigate the hurdles of his medical condition and lack of personal transportation.

Lavender’s family is unable to drive themselves around, much less able to take Lavender to and from his own medical appointments.

“My family is sick,” Lavender said. “My brother, he got prostate cancer. … My sister had a stroke. She ain’t in no shape.”

Without Dial-A-Bus, Lavender isn’t sure what he will do.

“I don’t have no ride,” he said. “I want to finish (treatment). I’m concerned for my health.”