A countywide bus service that provides rides for seniors, the disabled and low-income residents is in line for a major expansion, with new buses, longer weekday hours, and new weekend hours.

By a 5-1 vote Tuesday, the Porter County Council granted a funding increase of $40,000 in next year’s general fund for the Porter County Aging and Community Services (PCACS), which provides an on-demand bus service available to all residents countywide.

The increase will bring the county funding for the agency to $250,000 next year.

PCACS Executive Director Bruce Lindner said the additional funds will be used as a match for a $80,000 federal grant that PCACS is eligible to get this fall that will allow the bus service to expand from eight hours a day to 12 hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The expanded hours will be especially important for the working poor, since many low-income residents can’t use the PCACS buses for their jobs if they work eight-hour shifts, Lindner said.

The expanded service is expected to result in an additional 10,000 to 15,000 rides per year. Anyone can ride the PCACS 12-passenger buses with a call 48 hours in advance for the door-to-door service. The per ride fee is $3.

About half of the current PCACS ridership is in the Portage area, Lindner said.

The PCACS plans to tap a federal “New Freedoms” grant, which has been available in Northwest Indiana for about three years but not yet accessed. The grant funds, totaling $600,000, are now set to expire this fall, he said.

County council member Sylvia Graham, D-at large, expressed concern that no agency has tapped these dollars before now, but Lindner said that bus services in the region haven’t been able to come up with the matching dollars.

He noted that the federal grant is only for new and expanded service, not to help fund existing operations.

The PCACS is also set to get three new buses this fall, one of which will be added to the current fleet of six. The other two will replace older buses that will be used as a back-up.

Lindner said the added services will result in a 50 percent increase in PCACS transportation program.

Council member Dan Whitten, D-at large, questioned if the ridership will be there to support the expanded program, adding that he wouldn’t want to see “another V-line,” a reference to Valparaiso’s bus service that he contends doesn’t attract enough riders to justify the costs.

Lindner said no one knows for sure what the ridership will be, but that there has been strong interest expressed in longer hours. If the expanded service doesn’t work out, he said he won’t seek the additional funding next year.

Graham raised a concern that the county council might be committing to the increased funding over the three-year duration of the grant, but Lindner said if the council would choose not to approve the funding next year, then he would turn to another source, such as the Regional Bus Authority.

The $250,000 budget the PCACS passed 5-1 with only Graham voting no.

Also at Tuesday’s county budget hearings, the council approved the 2010 county funding for other social services, as follows:

* Porter Starke Services, from $1,585,209 this year to $1,645,447 next year. The increase is set by a state-set growth quotient for community mental health centers.

* Opportunity Enterprises, $700,000, the same as this year.

* Family and Youth Services Bureau of Porter County, $500,000, the same as this year.

The county council’s budget hearings will resume Thursday at 5 p.m. at the County Administration Center.

Posted 8/12/2009