THOUSAND OAKS : $8,000 Approved for New Dial-A-Ride Van
To help elderly citizens get around town, the Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday approved an $8,000 grant to Senior Concerns for subsidized taxi service.
Senior Concerns recently received a $38,000 grant from Caltrans to buy a wheelchair-accessible van for the city’s Dial-A-Ride program, which allows senior citizens and disabled residents to order subsidized taxi trips. The city’s funds will allow the nonprofit group to complete the purchase of the van.
“We have severely disabled and memory-impaired adults who (are) frequently forced to wait over an hour for rides to their homes,” Frances Prince, executive director of Senior Concerns, wrote in a letter to the city explaining the need for another van.
“It placed severe strains on these ‘special need’ seniors to sit and wait for that long a period of time,” Prince wrote. “It caused additional difficulty for our staff and volunteers to help them understand why they needed to be patient.”
As the city and Caltrans grants will cover only capital costs, the Thousand Oaks staff will now study the best way to take care of operating expenses.
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