EATON — Preble County Commissioners received additional information about the possibility of the creation of a rural transit option for residents during a Wednesday, Jan. 19, meeting.

Christy Campbell, RLS & Associates, a public transit-focused consulting company out of Dayton, presented information relating to the results of a recently undertaken public transportation feasibility study for Preble County.

“We provide training and technical assistance, consulting on management, and operations regarding public transit systems of all sizes, but have a large focus on rural and small urban communities,” Campbell said of the company. “We have a long-standing history of providing a technical assistance contract each year to ODOT on their rural transit program.

“We initiated the Preble County public transit feasibility study in December,” Campbell said. “Anytime there’s an interest from a local community in potentially establishing a rural public transit system, ODOT typically asks for some type of feasibility study. So that was the impetus behind what we’re doing.”

The study is looking at how transit is typically provided in a community like Preble County. “Obviously, you’re not a community that needs a Dayton RTA-type system with, you know, large city buses going down the street on a regular schedule,” Campbell said. “The type of transit that you often have in rural communities is advanced reservation. People typically use it to get to a job, to get to medical appointments, get to their shopping. It kind of operates like a like a shared ride taxi service in a way. So, we’ve been taking a look at other systems in Ohio, and we have some information about them.”

She continued, “We’ve been talking a lot with the Council on Aging about their senior transportation program. We did a public survey. And so today I’m going to present some of the results from that.”

The survey received 400 responses, according to Campbell. “It’s a great representation of the community. So, we were really pleased about that.” According to Campbell, based on Preble County’s population, the survey results were statistically significant.

Campbell said they had been meeting with community stakeholders who work with the population who may need public transit, as well as with a Project Steering Committee which has two meetings yet to go before it wraps up on Feb. 28.

“For the survey, we got it out through a variety of methods like social media and passing it out to clients at different programs. We got a good representation from around the county. So it’s not just folks from Eaton who responded, but all of the smaller communities, and the others were lots of people just living out in the rural areas of the townships,” Campbell continued. “So we were really pleased with the representation we got from around the county in our survey.”

Some 67 percent of those who responded to the survey said they drive themselves. The remainder said they were transported by a friend or family member, or a service like the Preble County Council on Aging. Eight-eight individuals said it was sometimes hard for them to get to medical appointments due to transportation and 55 said it was frequently or always difficult for them.

“So these are the sorts of trip purposes that we think this kind of program can help folks out with,” Campbell said.

Commonly people need to go to Dayton, the Richmond or greater Cincinnati, according to Campbell. Only 22 percent said they had no concerns about transportation needs for their future. “So we know this is something that people think about — maybe they don’t need it now, but they want that safety net should they become unable to drive,” Campbell added.

“We do ask people ‘how likely would you be to use a service like this if it was available?’ and about a quarter said that they would use it regularly. About half said, ‘I’d use it occasionally’ or ‘I wouldn’t, but I know somebody who would,’” she said.

The group has researched area transit systems and is looking at how agencies can work together to create a cooperative system in Preble County. Questions being looked at include how may vehicles will be needed. How much will it cost?

There are different service models and ways to implement public transit in rural areas, according to Campbell.

“No two system are alike, and kind of our ‘status quo’ model would be to continue what we’re doing today,” she said. “We have a Mobility Manager whose job it is, and they kind of help people out, point them to the right resources to get them where they need to go find a transportation option that might work for them.”

Campbell went on to explain that typically, a county which wants to establish a transit system will establish a county transit board, under Ohio Revised Code, and commissioners would appoint people to that seven-member voluntary board. The county would own the vehicles, and hire the staff. Counties (or other municipalities) can also contract the service with an outside source, according to Campbell.

“An existing provider that is in Preble County could expand to offer public transportation too. So that’s another option,” she said. “Even a new nonprofit could be established and they become something called a ‘designated grantee,’ where you establish an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with that nonprofit and they operate the service.”

Once the model of service for public transit in Preble County is decided upon, there is grant funding available from ODOT. ODOT will release the rural transit grant funding in March.

What is being asked of the county?

“We’d like to probably have some work sessions — at least one — to to delve more into this with you,” Campbell told commissioners. “And then certain decisions would need to be made. What what administrative model; do we want to form a county board? There would be some grant administration responsibilities at the county level. If we do do a county board, hiring staff, determining pay rates — that would be of course a county decision, figuring out the local match and looking at partnerships. Looking at where are we going to house the transit program — what service contracts would be provided to raise local match?” she added.

A letter of intent from the county will be due in late February if the decision is made to move forward with some sort of plan and apply for the ODOT rural transit grant funding.