The municipal Transportation Committee in Saugeen Shores wants Council to get moving with developing a service that will help residents get around town easier.
The committee wants Council to consider a business plan in 2010 that follows their suggestion for a service that uses a municipally-owned fleet of vehicles with private operators.
They also recommend a partnership with a not-for-profit organization in order to secure various types of government funding.
Co-Chair Alice McLaren says they’re going to start by “crawling” with a service using small vehicles that serves the disabled and elderly on a demand basis.
She says they could eventually decide a run between Port Elgin and Southampton with scheduled stops is needed, but they want to see what the demand is first.
McLaren says there would need to be private and organizational sponsoring–noting everything should be community-based.
The committee looked at similar transportation services in other municipalities and used the one in Meaford as an example.
Mayor Mike Smith says the idea of a transportation service has been volunteer driven for the past three years, and now they’re at the point where they need Council and municipal staff to get involved.
With a single vehicle, it would cost 100 thousand dollars to start the proposed service, the committee wants things started in late 2011 or early 2012.
Council will look at the transportation service again during budget discussions.