City to Seek Funding for New Transportation Service

O'Fallon will be looking at ways to provide a transportation service so that residents with disabilities can travel to medical appointments, do essential shopping and go to job interviews. 

O'Fallon Director of Public Relations Tom Drabelle presented the idea to the city council at last week's work session. 

Drabelle said that he hoped that the service could be outsourced. He said that the biggest challenge of the service is verification. "There are nonprofit agencies that specialize in making sure people qualify," he said. "Then they find the best solution for each person's needs."

Drabelle said he knew of several social services eager to partner with the city in the program.

Drabelle said that the city could limit on number of rides for any one individual. He pointed out for example that the St. Charles service limits individuals to five round trips per quarter. Some cities set monthly limits.

"This is not intended to be a bus service running every day," Drabelle said.

The service would be limited to St. Charles County, with some medical exceptions.

City staff could just be responsible to handle promotion of the program and payment processes.

The council debated whether to fund the program through the city's general fund or to seek funding through a Community Development Block Grant. 

Going through the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the block grant would take longer, Drabelle said, as staff will have write an annual plan to submit to HUD and then wait to find out if the funding is available.

The board's consensus was to go with the block grant.

Pending funding, the service could go into effect in the first half of 2014, Drabelle said.