Times Observer file photo The Warren County Commissioners met with Transit Authority of Warren County officials on Monday. The local match requirements needed to fund the fixed route program were a key element of the discussion.

The Warren County Commissioners begrudgingly increased the amount of local match money the county provides to the Transit Authority of Warren County recently.

On Monday, the commissioners heard from the Transit Authority of Warren County and discussed the match and the services more generally that TAWC provides.

“This isn’t something that’s been done in a while that we’ve had the Transit Authority here,” Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said during Monday’s work session.

Wendy Hollabaugh, TAWC executive director, said the fixed route program — think the big busses — receives federal, county and state funding and is “not structured for funding by townships or other local entities.”

She said the state selected county governments to provide oversight and funding for that program and explained that the local match — which brings about $255,000 to the county to run the program — can only be covered by local municipalities.

The commissioners tried to determine what the county’s match was 10-15 years ago, but TAWC had entered into an agreement with the Area Agency on Aging for help with the local match so it’s difficult to pin down that number.

“What you’re saying, the expectation going forward is 15 percent of your budget is going to need to be funded locally?” Commissioner Tricia Durbin asked.

Hollabaugh said the match requirements — the 15 percent the county will ultimately need to generate — is only for the fixed route service, not medical transportation or the shared-ride busses (the smaller, white busses).

She said the state funding for this fiscal year is $255,000 with 15 percent of that being the county’s match.

Hollabaugh said the fixed route service is “needed for some of our clients. … It is a needed service.”

TAWC Board member Grace Wright said the fixed route service could be “subtracted” from the shared-ride service that primarily benefits seniors and the medical assistance program which is state mandated.

But there’s a catch.

“The building is connected to the fixed route (service),” she said. “If you choose to cancel the fixed route, you will lose the building.”

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said “if you’re saying the county is ultimately the entity responsible” that there is an “inequity of the rural communities helping to carry the burden” of the service with residents in the city and the surrounding townships “being the bulk of the users.”

“You are correct,” Hollabuagh said.

“I don’t know what to do with that,” Kafferlin said.

Kafferlin noted that the fixed-route service was used 41,000 times last year, noting that amounts to about $1 per county resident per year in match money.

He then raised the issue of potentially shifting to smaller busses on the fixed route service.

“We could choose a smaller bus,” Hollabaugh said. “I guess it’s 50/50” between switching – with times when there wouldn’t be enough seats on a bus — or continuing to operate the busses they have now.

Lisa Hagberg, the county’s finance director and former Youngsville Borough manager, said it might be a good idea for TAWC to make presentations to the municipalities they serve.

“I don’t recall that we’ve seen you at a meeting,” she said. “Let them know what the impact is.”

Eggleston said the TAWC board is going to be scheduling such meetings and concurred with Kafferlin’s concern about the rural municipalities in the county subsidizing the program.

“It really isn’t fair,” he said, noting that now is the time to make that argument to the municipalities.