Minutes 10-21-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner porosin asked for an explanation of the employment transportation assistance program. Peter Murphy said it is an assistance program to get people to work training programs that will potentially place them into jobs. He said it mostly involves running vans or buses. He said if the funding for this is not exhausted it is rolled into either of the other two categories. Commissioner porosin asked if a program could be developed to assist people in getting vehicles. Chair Jacobs said the County used to have a program called Wheels to Work. Nancy Coston said this has been discussed recently. She said several programs like this have been run in the past, and they were very successful. She said there is a little bit of money in the budget to help pay for some of the cost to refurbish vehicles; however, there has not been an ongoing funding stream to help with the costs Commissioner porosin asked if this money could be used for that. Nancy Coston said no. She said the rules have changed, and the recipients have to be transitioning out of Work First. She said the funds are to help with rides or to help pay mileage costs for people who have a car. She said it is not to be used for purchasing a car. Peter Murphy said these funds can also be used to purchase bus passes. Commissioner Price asked if there is any expected impact on ridership as a result of the change in the Rural General Program (RGP) funds for the route 420 mid-day service. Peter Murphy said this is something to watch carefully because urban related transportation costs cannot be assigned to the ROAP funds. He said staff is researching other funds to make up for this. Commissioner Pelissier ask how these rural funds will be used and how it fits in with the County's other transportation plans. Peter Murphy said some of the routes are eligible for RGP. He said the public needs to be made well aware of the public routes that are available, and staff is working on this. He said if a route is open to the general public, it is considered RGP. Commissioner Pelissier said the Board sees this every year. She said in future she would like to see a report showing how many people use this service from the ROAP funds, and how many people are being served with the half cent sales tax. She would like to know who is being served. Commissioner Price asked if a resident in the southern rural part of the County would be able to come up to Hillsborough. She asked if the Durham urbanized area cuts into this. Peter Murphy said this could be done. He said the important part is to assign how many miles are being done in rural versus urban, and the rural miles must be higher. He said you can pick up in both sets of miles as a combination as long as the rural miles are higher. PUBLIC COMMENT: NONE A motion was made by Commissioner McKee, seconded by Commissioner Price to close the public hearing, VOTE: UNANIMOUS A motion was made by Commissioner Pelissier, seconded by Commissioner Price to approve the application for Rural Operating Assistance Program funds totaling $174,322 for