Region 10: 2023 Meeting Minutes (7/18)

 

HSTP Region 10

Quarterly Meeting Minutes

July 18, 2023 

Attendees:

Betty Cox	Clay County Rehab.-Flora
Mark Auten	TRADE Industries-McLeansboro
Jenni Beaman	Charleston Transitional Facility-Olney
Mike Egbert	Opportunities for Access-Mt. Vernon
Cory Young	Marion Co. Horizon Center-Salem
Matthew Lingle	Lawrence-Crawford Association for Exceptional Citizens-Robinson
Darlene McCoy	Lawrence-Crawford Association for Exceptional Citizens-Robinson
David Maziarz	Il. Dept. of Transportation-Springfield
Gidget Simpson	CILA Corporation-Flora
Dayo Adenekan	CILA Corporation-Flora
John Gillmore	Central Il. Public Transportation-Effingham
Jeffrey Drake	RIDES Mass Transit District--Harrisburg
Riley Anderson	Assistant Human Service Transportation Planning Coordinator-Salem
Terri Finn	Human Service Transportation Planning Coordinator-Salem

 

Call to Order: The quarterly HSTP Region 10 meeting was held on Tuesday, July 18^th, 2023, at CILA Corporation in Flora.  The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Mark Auten at 11:02am. 

 

Introductions: All attendees introduced themselves and their respective agencies

 

Approval of April 2023 meeting minutes:  Chairperson Auten asked everyone to review the minutes from the April meeting.  Hearing no additions or corrections a motion was made by Jeffrey Drake and seconded by Mike Egbert to accept the minutes.

 

Guest Speaker: Dayo Adenekan of CILA Corporation,

Dayo has been with CILA Corp for 25 years ago.  He started the first CILA home because he worked with some institutionalized residents that were part of the Bogard case, he didn’t want to lose those residents, so he opened the CILA home, which is named Bluebird Hill.  At that time, the need for accessible transportation wasn’t high; 59 of the 61 residents were ambulatory.  Since then, things have greatly changed. 95% of the residents at CILA Corporation require specialized transportation.  IDOT grants have been a blessing, with 8 of the 9 homes needing accessible vehicles.  CILA now has 5 IDOT buses, and 1 bus that needs to be released for disposal and are hoping to receive 3 new vehicles thru CVP. 

CILA Corporation does 6,500-7,000 trips a year, most of those are medical trips, around 30% are social trips and daily living needs.  CILA Corp. residents attend Clay Co. Rehab’s day programming and those trips are provided by CIPT or RIDES.  Some residents have such medical needs, that it’s hard for them to link up with other transportation providers. 

Regional Plan: Terri Finn went over the Regional Plan.  Topics that were discussed at the last meeting and the work that is being done to meet the gaps and needs were updated for submission to IDOT. 

Staffing issues were discussed.  Jeffrey Drake stated that Rides has 40% less staff than a few years ago.  Other providers agreed that staffing issues are currently the main problem. 

Terri asked if the downsizing at Choate hospital is affecting residential services and the resident transportation needs.  Dayo Adenekan stated he has one of the residents from Choate and that there were only about 21 guardians that approved of the residents moving.  Mark Auten stated that he also admitted one resident from Choate. 

Jeffrey Drake informed the committee that many of the dialysis centers in this area have closed, causing those patients to need transportation further away.  He also mentioned that one clinic has now opened in Paris. 

Terri asked CIPT if they are offering any additional evening or weekend hours, but they aren’t at this time.

Terri Finn informed the committee that HSTP Coordinators, IDOT, the Statewide Independent Living, DHS and HFS are all working together to see how they can address the issues with MCO’s sending inaccessible vehicles to riders in wheelchairs and other problematic issues that are occurring.    

Transportation Concerns:  Dayo Adenekan asked if there were any updates regarding the CVP applications.  David Maziarz said they are still working to get costs, requests, and procurement lined out.  Cory Young stated he received an email from Zoe saying that everyone should know something about their application requests by October. 

General Discussion: Handouts and resource materials were addressed by Riley Anderson. 

David Maziarz addressed the F-1\vehicle disposal backlog.  He would make our concerns known to IDOT and said that submitting the F-1 documents will probably be done thru Blackcat in the near future. 

The next meeting will be on Oct. 17^th at Community Support Systems in Teutopolis.

Adjourn: Motion made by Dayo Adenekan and seconded by Cory Young to adjourn at 11:30am.