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LOCK HAVEN -- The Clinton County Housing Authority was "disappointed" to learn that PennDOT was discontinuing public transportation into Clinton County through River Valley Transit.
Jeffery Rich, authority director, offered comment on behalf of the organization. The authority, like the county, Lock Haven University and city of Lock Haven, provided local source funding for the three-year pilot program which began in 2018.
"We were one of the agencies on board really early on trying to resolve transportation issues in the community," Rich said. "We one hundred percent supported this public transportation program and helped to get it launched … helped to fund it as well with hopes that it would bring more economic opportunities, especially now for our low income tenants."
The authority provides high-quality, safe rental housing for eligible, low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
Rich said public transportation was vital to the authorities tenants.
"There isn't a means for them to get cost effective transportation," he said. "This provided away for them to get to jobs even if that's outside of the area."
Public transportation through the program was the ideal solution, he said.
"This is a huge step backwards. There aren't any other resources out there for them to get transportation except for taxi services or if they qualify for the STEP service," Rich continued.
Rich said the authority put $9,000 toward the program each year with plans to do so again in 2021.
The authority was made aware of the discontinuation when Clinton County Planning Director Katie de Silva contacted Rich about two weeks ago.
Rich noted that the use of public transportation was slow to start but attributed that to a lack of service in the area.
"People in this community aren't used to that service being available. They were just starting to get accustomed to having that available," he said. "I think our ridership numbers would have continued to increase if we hadn't had this pandemic and lockdowns."
Rich said he's certain the COVID-19 pandemic played a part in the ridership numbers in 2020. "People were just not moving around like they normally did," he said.
The loss of this resource is something that will affect housing authority residents the most, Rich said.
He noted that the transportation committee is coming together in an attempt to see what "plan b" might be.