Hillsdale Place resident Alexix Kozub hoisted herself out of her stiff chair and approached the podium in the City Council chamber Oct. 1, preparing to speak.
She simply said that she thinks Dial-A-Ride going to Walmart twice a month is a good thing and will enable residents to get goods not available from downtown businesses.
Kozub represents the view of a significant contingent of Hillsdale area seniors. Several of them have attended and spoke at council meetings in the past few weeks, mostly in favor of an expansion of Dial-A-Ride, a local service provided to residents without the means to transport themselves around the city.
Now their requests are being put into action.
Council visits from local seniors, along with a petition with 100 signatures convinced the city’s Community Development Committee to allow an expansion of the service to twice a month from Hillsdale Place and Hilltop (two local senior residences) for a three-month trial run — but only after Jane Munson of Key Opportunities, Inc. approved of the city’s expanding into the area of her service, according to city council minutes from Oct. 1 and Dial-A-Ride employee Sue Kane.
Kane said that the trial will allow the city to gauge interest in the service.
“We’ll see how many people end up going. We had 100 people sign a petition, but only five rode this past Monday. That’s not worth it for us,” she said.
Kane added that there may not be a need for the service, though there is definitely a want. Munson said that some of these seniors do genuinely need the service.
“We were transporting seniors once a month from Hillsdale Place and Hilltop. Our ridership varied. During the holidays, we got more people to ride because people were doing more shopping. Some seniors just don’t have a way,” Munson said.
At this week’s city council meeting, Dial-A-Ride Dispatcher/Coordinator Judy Buzo said that Dial-A-Ride completed its inaugural ride of the new trial run. It had yielded a profit of less than $20 not counting the cost of gas. But Mayor Doug Moon said not to worry.
“This was not intended as a profit-making venture,” Moon said.
Hillsdale City government administers the service within the city limits from 7:30 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, with special hours during the holiday shopping season, according to the Hillsdale County government website. In addition, local non-profit Key Opportunities, Inc. had run a Dial-A-Ride service departing from Hillsdale Place and Hilltop to Wal-Mart and back, with a roundtrip cost of $4.50, said Munson. jbutler@hillsdale.edu
