The Western Illinois Regional Council hosted a meeting Thursday for representatives of eight counties seeking federal and state mass transit grants. The WIRC has been appointed as planning agency for a regional area encompassing McDonough, Warren, Hancock, Henderson, Schuyler, Brown, Adams, and Pike counties.

Tim Lobdell is the agency’s human services transportation plan coordinator. He told committee members their regional plan was submitted to the Illinois Department of Transportation in January and he is waiting for a response. "They want to establish benchmarks to use in evaluating each regional plan," he said.

Lobdell also said the region has been awarded money for vans under the federal New Freedom grant program, with grants going to Macomb in McDonough County, Quincy in Adams County, and West Central Mass Transit and Brown and Pike counties. The grants must pass through IDOT.

John Ohnemus of Quincy Transit Lines said he was told by an IDOT representative that the grant money would not be available for six months. Gary Ziegler of McDonough County Public Transportation said he had hoped to receive the money in July but now might have to wait until October.

"The  state is hoping to do another round (of grant applications) in the fall," said R. Jean Jumper of West Central Mass Transit.

Lobdell said applications just came out for another grant program that would award funds to acquire paratransit vehicles for transportation of the elderly and disabled. He said completed applications are due June 4.

"I  will be required to go through the submitted applications," Lobdell said. He indicated a set of applications will then be sent to each member of the regional committee.

The committee voted to meet again in Macomb on June 24 to review applications and hear presentations from any transportation providers who’ve not yet been part of their group.  WIRC Executive Director Suzan Nash said regional endorsements count for half the ranking of any proposal, so no applicant can get a grant without regional endorsement.

"We have to see how any proposed uses of the funding would fit into our overall plan," Lobdell said. "The idea of the HSTP is to get people together to maximize services."

He later said that the human services transportation plan is a federal mandate, and the creation of the regional transportation committees is the state’s response.

Lobdell also told the group that IDOT has a website where charter bus companies are supposed to register. Ziegler said some of the registrations may be misleading, as companies list all locations they intend to serve rather than their immediate geographic area. "There are 49 listed as serving Macomb, but only one is actually located in our region," he said.