Oktibbeha County unanimously approved a $50,000 request that will expand the Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit system’s paratransit service into the county.
Jeremiah Dumas, MSU’s director of Parking and Transit Services, updated supervisors Monday on the SMART system’s performance and requested the funding to expand the paratransit offering.
The paratransit service serves people with disabilities who need wheelchair accessible vehicles.
Dumas’ presentation for supervisors, which he also showed Starkville aldermen at their last meeting, shows the paratransit service provided 4,000 unique trips in 2018 — or about 331 per month. The service added 29 new members and provided 1,325 chair lift trips, or about 102 per month.
Dumas said the paratransit service is offered in the SMART system’s main service area and a 1.5-mile buffer zone around it. That area serves about 34,000 people, he said, and there are about 14,000 people who live outside it.
“We get numerous calls from people in the county wishing for and desiring paratransit service,” he said. “They don’t have access to someone who can pick them up. They don’t have access to a wheelchair accessible vehicle. And because of that paratransit plan, we have to deny them service.”
Dumas’ proposal for supervisors was to create a “paratransit-plus” service, which would take the existing paratransit service and grow it into all of Oktibbeha County.
He said the expanded service would work as it does now — it would require an application, and approved users would give the SMART system 24-hour notice to schedule pickups. He said it will remain free, with no fare to users.
“It could be doctors’ appointments, or we even have people who go to get their hair done or their nails done,” he said. “Whatever it may be, as something specific to them, as qualified applicants for paratransit programs.”
With the county’s approval, the paratransit-plus service will take effect after the beginning of the new federal fiscal year, on Oct. 1.
“I think we need to move forward on this,” Board President Orlando Trainer said. “I think that alone is well worth it because a paratransit service — you’d be amazed in the entire county how much that is needed.”
The SMART system is paid for through a mix of federal funding, administered through the Mississippi Department of Transportation, and local costs. The system has a total proposed budget of $4.25 million for Fiscal Year 2020, with $1.70 million of that coming in local cost shares. Most of the local costs — $40 million — is to come from MSU, with $170,000 in contracts and advertising and $50,000 each from the city of Starkville and Oktibbeha County.
Supervisors also discussed possibly adding regular SMART service to other areas of the county. District 4 Supervisor asked Dumas about possible once-per-week trips to Sturgis or Macon. The board also asked about possible routes to East Mississippi Community College or the Communiversity workforce training facility on Highway 82 near Paccar.
Dumas said it would take longer to consider those options, and the application for funding for the next fiscal year is due at the beginning of March. He said he will continue discussions with supervisors to narrow down possible new service stops.
“We need to work through the process of exactly what those finite desires are,” Dumas said. “Is it just Sturgis and Maben? Do we need to go somewhere in the southwest corner of the county — we need to know what your thoughts are there.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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