By Keith Regan, Community Reporter
Westborough – The Board of Selectmen voted to support funding a fourth driver for the Council on Aging’s (COA) senior transportation service for the coming fiscal year and pledged to work with the group to develop a true long-range plan for expanding the service to meet growing demand.
The COA’s budget was one of the last selectmen approved as the final touches are put on the fiscal year 2016 spending plan. It contained an increase mainly connected to the addition of a fourth driver for the shuttle services the council operates, taking seniors to doctor’s appointments, shopping centers and to and from the Senior Center.
The vote came after the council presented a report on its transportation services, an update required by a fall Town Meeting article that provided temporary funding. The report missed a Feb. 1 deadline set by the Town Meeting vote to keep the current year’s funding in place.
In the report, COA Executive Director Alma DeManche said the town began offering its own transportation services to seniors 10 years ago and last year provided 8,000 trips to seniors as well as disabled residents. Seniors make up nearly one-fourth of the town’s population.
COA Chair Charlie Flood said in addition to more riders, the service is dealing with other factors. With new age-restricted communities, more seniors live further from downtown than ever before, he noted, and consolidation in the medical field means seniors may have to go further to see physicians.
Selectmen chair George Barrette said he would work with the Council on Aging directly going forward to help strengthen the report and help the COA come up with a long-term funding request that the board can respond to in the future.
The topic of what to charge riders going forward was also set aside for the longer-term discussion. Currently, the suggested donation is 50 cents per trip, and the COA sells 10-ride punch cards for $5. However, Selectman Ian Johnson noted that even doubling the fare would not generate enough revenue to fund a significant portion of the program.
Though the board made it clear they supported the service –and keeping it affordable for users–the discussion also came after the board heard from Advisory Finance Committee Chairn Gary Wells that the latest budget proposals and valuation data suggest budget growth of more than 3 percent, with the average single-family homeowner seeing a $300 jump in their annual tax bill.
Johnson noted that Town Meeting voters wanted the report to examine opportunities for regionalization, something that he and other board members felt warranted more exploration than the report gave it.
Overall, the board pushed for a more specific growth plan from the council, one with measurable goals and a true price tag attached.
“We want to use the buses we have and we want to take care of our seniors,” Johnson said. “Help us help you.”
“What the report lacks is a funding plan coming from you,” Barrette said. “Just throwing more drivers at the problem isn’t going to solve it.”
Town Meeting will make the final decision on the fiscal year 2016 budget on Saturday, March 14.
