Coshocton County Transportation Advisory Council

Minutes

September 16, 2010

Board Members Attending:, D. Curtis Lee, Coshocton County Commissioner; Mary Beckholt, Kno-Ho-Co; Elaine Bailey, CCBDD; Mark Van Dusen, CCBDD; Melinda Jones, TCAS; Herb Tedrick, Veteran’s Office; Sheila Bates, DJFS; & Stephanie Babcock, RHDD;

Others Attending: Tracy Haines; Coshocton County Transportation Coordinator and

Angie Smith Coordinated Transportation

Absent: Duane Beck, Handicap Society and Carol Baker, AAA;

Tracy welcomed everyone and gave a brief overview of how CCCTA was functioning. The office is in a good place at this time. Monthly billing is current and office staff has been able to meet all deadlines. Drivers are fully trained and Hopewell shuttles are running smoothly.

Old Business

New AAA Policy

Tracy distributed the new AAA9 mileage policy for everyone to review. We have only had two people call with concerns regarding this policy, the families worked with us and we were able to continue to provide service to both clients. Limiting trips to Columbus twice monthly is working well also.

Passport Provider

We have completed the application to become a Passport Provider and are waiting for notification of acceptance. We are not sure how many of our AAA clients will benefit from the Passport Program as most of those clients are Medicaid eligible and are billed through ODJFS.

Specialized Vehicle

CCCTA was awarded the opportunity to purchase a new shuttle vehicle through ODOT’s 5310 Specialized Vehicle Program. Match money needed for the vehicle is $8,309.80 and so far we have received $1,000 from the VFW. We budgeted $5,000 so we currently have $6,000. We are hoping to have the vehicle by the end of the year and are considering hiring a part-time driver.

New Business

Computers

CCCTA has been experiencing some computer issues. Michael Lavigne, County IT Director, explained that every computer was operating on a different version of Windows which was causing the programs to convert files when opened by the different systems. During the conversions, files were being lost and corrupted. Michael said it was only a matter of time before our system crashed. Michael obtained a quote from CDW~G for $2,336.00. This included 2 hard drives, 22-inch monitors, one office basic software package and one office standard software package and 4 year warranties on each computer. CCCTA was also awarded a contract to purchase a Notebook computer at 20% of the cost through ODOT’s 5310 Specialized Vehicle Program.

Client Suspension

CCCTA has a client who has been giving our staff a very difficult time and has been suspended for 30 days. She has refused to sign and return a Passenger Behavior Policy. Her transportation privileges will not be reinstated until she has returned the policy. The client is a senior citizen and has been banned from the Senior Center for life. We currently have five pages of documentation on her. We transported her to Cleveland for a doctor appointment. She was dropped off 20 minutes early and decided to get a flu shot before she went to her scheduled appointment. The doctor’s office refused to see her because she was more than an hour late. Most recently she was transported in a vehicle with a 6 year old autistic child and her mother. The child was sucking her thumb. The client berated her most of the way to Akron and eventually grabbed the child’s hand and pulled the thumb out of her mouth. The incident was reported by the driver and the child’s mother was called. Melinda from TCAS stated that we have to be concerned about our drivers; Tracy said that our drivers are very concerned because her actions are unpredictable and verydistracting. Herb from VSA asked if she has a case worker. Sheila from DJFS said that Missy Grimmitt is her case worker and that the client never wants to sign anything for them.

VSA Meal Vouchers

The Veteran’s office and Red Cross applied for a grant that would supply $5 meal vouchers to local veterans when transported to Columbus, Cleveland, or Cincinnati VA facilities. CCCTA has agreed to distribute and keep records on the gas vouchers. At the end of each month the records will be submitted to the Coshocton Veterans office for further processing.

School Procedure

Melinda from TCAS asked about our procedure with picking children up from school and taking them to TCAS for their appointments. Tracy explained the drivers cannot leave sight of their vehicle if there are clients aboard. Most schools will release the child upon the driver calling however; Central Elementary wants drivers to park and walk into the school office to pick up the children. If the child’s parents do not send a note to school stating CCCTA will be picking their child up, the school will not release the child to our driver. Tracy would like to get a set pattern in place for the pickups and drop offs.

Adjournment

The next meeting will be December 9, 2010.