COUNTYWIDE : Disabled Adults Lose Transportation

About 360 developmentally disabled adults in Orange County will face a new problem this Christmas when they lose state-provided transportation to training programs, officials announced Friday.

A private firm that provides the transportation is dropping its service Dec. 24. Company officials said the firm is losing money on the service.

“This is a real crisis for the disabled because they rely on this transportation,” said Rhys Burchill, spokeswoman for Area XI Developmental Disabilities Board, a federally funded agency that serves as a watchdog over Orange County programs for the developmentally disabled. The state pays Ryder Student Transportation Services, a private company, to bus the disabled adults to places where they can learn working and living skills. But in the past year the state has been unable to offer any increased funding even as transportation costs rose.

In a telephone interview from his St. Louis office, Ryder Vice President John Elliott on Friday said the company has been losing money with its service for the disabled in Orange County.

“We’ve been without a contract since June 30, and we didn’t get a rate increase this year,” said Elliott. “I want to stress this is not an adversarial situation. We’ve been serving (the disabled in Orange County) since 1988, and we’ve had a good relationship. We have asked for money, but we do understand that the state has been having budget problems.”

On Friday, Elliott offered to continue service to wheelchair-bound people in the Orange County program through Jan. 29. He said this would help about 100 people who now rely on Ryder.

The Developmental Disabilities Center of Orange County, based in Orange, is the nonprofit organization the state uses to funnel its money to the disabled. Dwight Tate, chief counselor of the Developmental Disabilities Center, said Friday that he was not aware of the details of Ryder’s offer but welcomed it.

Meanwhile, Tate said, the center is trying to find a full-time solution. One option, he said, is to offer transportation money to reimburse parents and employers of disabled adults.