Public transport at crossroads

With Hancock County's public transportation system at a crossroads, a survey and planning are underway to determine if it can avoid service cuts when its current funding plummets in 2025. Surveys are being taken of Hancock County residents to help develop a Transit Development Plan for Hancock Area Transportation Services (HATS). People can access the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HancockTDP Development of the plan, which will include recommendations by June, is being funded by a $70,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation. HATS drives people to jobs, medical appointments and shopping destinations. The 68,011 rides it provided in 2023 were 6.4% more than in 2022 and 11.6% more than in 2021. Job-related rides comprised 51% of trips last year, HATS reported. Medical/dialysis appointments accounted for 26%. While it offers rides to people from all corners of Hancock County, the service is Findlay-centric: 97% of all HATS rides begin or end in Findlay, HATS reported. Yet Findlay is the largest Ohio city lacking a fixed route transit service, or in other words, bus stops, said James Baker, transportation director for HATS' parent agency, HHWP Community Action Commission. In fact, even smaller town rivals, like Tiffin and Fremont, offer some fixed routes to their residents, he said. So HATS is working to gauge what the community wants, how the agency can best serve people and how public transportation can be funded long term. Besides getting people's input through the surveys, HATS' Transit Development Plan Subcommittee has hired Nelson Nygaard Consultant Associates, headquartered in San Francisco, to help develop the plan. The plan will have a five-year implementation window and will include scenarios on what HATS can do, how it can run public transportation differently and how it can be funded, Baker said. Fiscal cliff HATS' funding will plummet in 2025. United Way of Hancock County for a long time "paid the freight" for public transportation in Hancock County, he said. It contributed as much as $260,000 in some years. When the pandemic hit, United Way's priorities changed and HATS received about $200,000 less from United Way in 2022 and 2023, a move Baker said he understands. "Their focus is making sure vulnerable children and families get services, and that's fine," he said. The Hancock County Commissioners offset part of HATS' loss, contributing installments of $100,000 in federal COVID relief funds to HATS in 2022 and 2023. Another $100,000 installment of federally-derived funds will be sent from the county to HATS this year. HATS also replaced some of its funding gap through contracts in which it provides transportation for other agencies. Two examples: It drives children from Findlay YMCA's Child Development Center to Findlay elementary schools; and in a contract with Hancock County Job and Family Services, it provides transportation for Medicaid recipients. But the funding shortfall will deepen after 2024 because no more COVID relief funds will be available. Baker is hoping the city, county or others will step up. "Public transit is funded in a lot of cities with city and county contributions, but that's not the case here," Baker said. HATS also gets less support from other local community agencies than its transportation peers elsewhere. Other transit agencies in the region have contracts with agencies for the developmentally disabled, with local hospitals and senior centers, like 50 North. "Those are big contract revenues that help keep transit agencies going in rural areas. We don't have that here," Baker said. "We have approached a lot of those folks, and they just don't seem to be interested."