By KEVIN P. CRAVER - kcraver@nwherald.com
Expanded county dial-a-ride
services to start in February
The new service, which partners county providers with Pace, will give county residents as of Feb. 13 the option of traveling to and from Crystal Lake, McHenry and Woodstock, as well as Valley Hi Nursing Home in Woodstock and the Fox Lake Metra station. Seniors 65 years and older and people with disabilities also can travel to and from destinations in McHenry and Dorr townships. The system also is open to clients of Pioneer Center for Human Services, which helps people with mental disabilities.
The three cities currently have access to Pace Dial-a-Ride, but they cannot leave their respective city limits, McHenry Township Supervisor Donna Schaefer said.
The new system, among other things, will give seniors and other residents the ability to travel to federal, state and local government offices in the county seat of Woodstock.
“It’s badly needed; there is no way for people who depend on dial-a-ride services now to get from one town to another,” Schaefer said. “This will help people find employment, and it will certainly help seniors and the disabled who cannot use the traditional route system, which in itself is very limited within the county.”
Pace presently maintains three fixed routes in McHenry County. The agency has balked at additional routes because the county’s layout makes traditional city routes impractical and because of low ridership on the existing routes.
The new system will be subsidized in large part by a quarter-percent sales tax that county residents pay for transportation and public safety improvements. The McHenry County Board in September voted to allocate $275,000 of the new tax’s receipts to get the expanded dial-a-ride program going.
Local officials and their General Assembly representatives have long complained that McHenry County is a “donor county” that pays more into the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority, than it gets in return. Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley, who also is the county’s representative on the Pace Board, is hopeful that the new system is the start of a greater return on local taxpayers’ investment.
“The fact of the matter is that on-demand transit, which is what dial-a-ride is, is the only model of public transportation from a busing standpoint that is going to be efficient and effective in this county,” Shepley said.
The General Assembly in 2008 doubled the RTA sales tax on the collar counties to half a percent. It also added the quarter-percent tax for county governments to spend on local projects, in part to placate suburban lawmakers upset with paying more. All three of McHenry County’s state representatives and both its state senators opposed the tax increases.
The system, if successful, may be joined by other governments. Algonquin and Nunda townships will watch how the new system works, Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Robert Miller said. His township received $20,940 from the sales tax to help track the rides offered by its senior transportation service.
“This is step one. We’re seriously considering it. The whole idea is to work together, but we want to see how it works,” Miller said.
County residents first must register to become eligible to ride the system, and must make ride appointments one day in advance. Rides will cost $3 cash per one-way trip.
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What it means
McHenry County’s expanded dial-a-ride service will begin Feb. 13, 2010. It will allow the public to make trips within and to the cities of Woodstock, McHenry and Crystal Lake, as well as Valley Hi Nursing Home and the Fox Lake Metra station. People older than 65 and people with disabilities also can travel to destinations in McHenry and Dorr townships, outside of Bull Valley.
How to ride
A one-time registration is required to participate, and people are advised to register before Feb.
1. People can register online at www.mchenrycountydot.org, or call Transportation Planner Sarah Lutz at 815-334-4985 with any questions. Rides must be scheduled one day in advance by calling 800-451-4599 or 888-454-4724 for TTY. The first appointments for registered riders will be taken Feb. 12.
Registered riders can travel from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. All one-way trips are $3, and there are no discounted or multiride fares. Fares must be paid in cash, and trips are curb-to-curb and wheelchair accessible.
Sources: McHenry County, Pace
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