GATEWAY will apply for grant to help balance its budget
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 12, 2014 1:50 AM
GATEWAY Director Fred Fontana Tuesday is looking for ways to tweak his budget so that cuts in transportation funding won't result in higher costs for riders.
A joint venture of the county and city, GATEWAY is expected to lose $29,928 for the rural van system it operates.
GATEWAY, which also operates an urban bus system, received $229,928 in fiscal year 2013-14 from the North Carolina Rural Operating Assistance Program compared to the $200,000 expected in 2014-15.
No one from the public spoke during a brief Tuesday morning public hearing before Wayne County commissioners on the funding application.
Following the hearing, commissioners voted to apply for the funding, which includes:
* $83,582 for the Elderly and Disabled Transportation Assistance Program, which provides operating assistance for the transportation of the elderly and disabled.
"Historically that money has been divided between the Wayne Opportunity Center and the Services on Aging for the Senior Center," Fontana said.
* $32,313 for the Employment Transportation Assistance Program to provide operating assistance for transitional Work First, Workforce Development programs and general public employment transportation needs.
"Again, historically that has gone to the Department of Social Services to use for their employment transportation needs," he said.
* $84,726 for the Rural General Public Program to provide transportation service for people who are not clients of a human services agency.
"That is transportation open to the general public for residents outside the city of Goldsboro, and the trip has to be in an unincorporated area of the county," Fontana said.
The fiscal year started July 1, but the state is late in allocating the money having waited for the General Assembly to adopt the budget, he said.
"The allocation is almost 13 percent less than it was last year," Fontana said. "That is not the General Assembly necessarily cutting the program. I think their budget actually cut it about 2 percent. The prior years there had always been unallocated money from the previous year that the state rolled over to the new year. This year that money was not available."
The public hearing is a requirement even though the funding is an annual routine allocation through the state Department of Transportation, he said.
Commissioner Bill Pate asked Fontana if the 13 percent cut would have an immediate impact.
Fontana said he has met with Eryn McAulffe, Services on Aging director, and would meet with Wayne Opportunity officials to discuss how to offset the cuts.
The Senior Center is trying to move people who had been riding GATEWAY vans to take the city buses instead.
That would save a "considerable amount" of money, he said.
"We are trying to be creative and are trying to move some money around," Fontana said.
The Department of Social Services has not used all of its employment money from years past, he said.
"Sometime by the middle of the year if it looks like they are not going to spend it, they will give it back to us and we can reallocate it to the elderly and disabled program as well," Fontana said. "So I think we will be OK."
Money for the employment program can be moved to the elderly and disabled or general public. However, the elderly and disabled funding cannot be moved to either of the other two programs, he said.