Marshall County Commissioners recently heard a presentation from Jackie Wright with the Marshall County Council on Aging.
Wright came before the commissioners previously to obtain permission to apply for public transit funds from INDOT. At that time, she was asked to gather some more specific details and come back to another meeting.
Commissioner Kevin Overmyer noted that one reason she was asked to return is because the County will soon be preparing their budget and since an $8,000 donation is provided to the Council on Aging annually, he just wanted the commissioners to hear a bit of an update organization’s operations.
That information was shared with the commissioners when they met Monday evening. She told commissioners, “We provide services to a whole host of different ages, we do the entire county, whether it be people going to work, whether people going to the doctor, whether it be people going to the grocery store, we continually see our need growing for public transportation.”
In a report provided to the commissioners, Wright noted that the Council on Aging currently has 9 vehicles that are wheelchair accessible and one car. To demonstrate the increased demand, she also included some data about how many individuals utilize the service.
The highest amount of activity recorded for 2017 was 1,962 public service trips in one month. In the first quarter of 2018, the highest month had more than 2,075 public service trips recorded.
Wright noted that the Council on Aging plans to reach out to all local municipalities, philanthropic and military service organizations to ask them to assist with meeting the needs of the residents of Marshall County.
