Region 11: 2012 Meeting Minutes (12/4)

Human Services Transportation Plan

Region 11

Minutes of December 4, 2012 Meeting

Held at the H Group, 902 W. Main St., West Frankfort, Il.

Those in attendance:

Susan Muszynski	Area Agency on Aging of S.W. IL.
Vincent Riti	Challenge Unlimited
Michael ‘Spud’ Egbert	Opportunities for Access CIL
Treesa Sauerbrunn	Shawnee Mass Transit
Jeremy Biggerstaff	United Methodist Children’s Home
Patty Evansco	Millstadt Township Sr. Services
Stephanie Kastner	Helping Hands
Maureen Mann	Shawnee Mass Transit
Dave Ragan	The H Group
James Lane	Touchette Hospital
Be Youther	Shawnee Mass Transit
Bill Grogan	St. Clair Co. Transit
Mark Bollmann	Human Service Center
Kevin Loucks	South Central Transit
Debra Staggs	RIDES Mass Transit
Susan Engelhardt	5 Star Industies, Inc. & Perry Co. Counseling
Jon Douglas	LINC Inc. (CIL)
Marilyn Hughes	LINC Inc. (CIL)
Terri Finn	HSTP Coordinator

The meeting was called to order by Maureen Mann at 11:06am and introductions were done.

Guest speaker: Stephanie Kastner from Helping Hands Medical Transportation in Belleville, Il. explained the services that Helping Hands provides.  80% of the transportation Helping Hands provides is Medicaid funded but they also do private pay trips.  The agency has approximately 30 vehicles in their fleet but only 2 are wheelchair accessible.  The Committee discussed possible referrals & coordination efforts between the public transit providers & Helping Hands.  Stephanie provided a handout with agency information to the Committee.

Coordination: Provider inventory resource lists were handed out & Terri Finn asked that if there are changes to let her know so the list could stay updated. 

The floor was opened for agencies to share their stories of coordination.  Some great stories were shared.

Bill Grogan informed the Committee that St. Clair Co. Transit\ATS has procured 14 new vehicles so they will have some older models available to sell.

Mark Bollmann brought up a problem his agency is having with 1^st Transit.  Mark stated that a Medicaid trip will be approved by 1^st Transit but when billed, the trip is denied for payment due to ‘shortest route’ rules.  At times, these ‘shortest routes’ will take the vehicle on gravel or dirt roads that shouldn’t be traveled but since 1^st Transit representatives don’t know rural roads they don’t seem to care about this issue.  Some other Committee members voiced that they are also having this problem & have been going through dispute resolution.  Mark would appreciate any help with this problem.

Committee Bylaws: Copies of the bylaws that the subcommittee had revised were distributed to the Committee.  Ben Youther went over the changes that were made & discussed how and why the subcommittee changed certain items.  Motion was made by Maureen Mann & seconded by Bill Grogan to approve the new bylaws.  Motion passed unanimously. 

General Discussion: The results of the St. Clair Co. survey, conducted by SIU-C & the Rural Medical Transportation Network, were distributed for Committee review.  Dennis Presley would like to meet with the subcommittee soon so Terri Finn will try to get that scheduled in January.

Terri Finn discussed recent Veteran’s forums that she & some of the public transit provider staff had recently attended.  Terri explained that IDOT is involved with the Veteran’s Initiative for employment so efforts are being made to inform Vet’s of transportation opportunities.  A discussion then began regarding rides for Vet’s in Southern Il. and what the group could do to help.  One example was to offer free rides 1 month of the year, possibly November in observance of Veteran’s Day.  Public providers were asked to bring this up at IPTA meetings to make this a statewide effort.

Terri Finn offered to provide Mobility Management training to agency staff, clients or transit riders that might need it.  Maureen Mann told the Committee of a future training that SMART staff will be involved in with Terri.

The next meeting will be held at Shawnee College in Ullin on March 5, 2013 at 11:00am.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:36pm.