Disabled lose rides to work

Heavy demand for a transportation program has caused money to run out faster than county officials anticipated.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 6, 2000

CLEARWATER -- Unemployment is not an option for Elaine Garzieri.

Social Security brings in only $500 a month, and the 65-year-old is not interested in sitting around all day.

So seven months after her left leg was amputated, Garzieri returned to work at the Clearwater Workforce Center on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard with the help of a county program that provides subsidized transportation for those unable to drive themselves.

But due to budget shortfalls, Garzieri and at least 20 other Pinellas County residents like her will lose their rides on Friday.

Advocates for Transportation Disadvantaged programs are pushing state lawmakers to set aside more money next year so riders like Garzieri will not feel the pinch. Meanwhile, the Clearwater woman is trying to find another way to work.

"I'm trying very hard to come back to a place where I can at least do a few hours a day," said Garzieri, who works 20 hours a week at the Workforce Center's switchboard. "This program is perfect for me. But I am not going to walk to work."

The county's Transportation Disadvantaged program uses taxis, wheelchair vans and buses to ferry those who cannot drive to doctor appointments and jobs. The program received about $1.2-million from the state for this budget year, which ends June 30.

But heavy demand has caused that money to run out faster than county transportation officials anticipated, said Dave McDonald, the county planner in charge of the local program.

The county does not want to deny rides to patients who need to reach doctors, so a third of the 60 riders who use the program just to get to work have to be cut, McDonald said.

"Usually there's a lull in between January and April, the demand goes down. But that didn't happen this year," McDonald said. "We have to prioritize our trips, and medical is most important."

Transportation Disadvantaged programs throughout Florida denied more than 1-million rides last year because of a lack of money, said Jo Ann Hutchinson, executive director of the state Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged. Some communities have even turned down medical trips, she said.

"We're hearing in some counties that all they're going to be able to do is kidney dialysis (appointments) and cancer treatments," Hutchinson said. "They're doing the best they can with what they've got."

The Legislature is considering several bills that would increase the money available for such programs, which has been about $24-million a year for the last six years, Hutchinson said.

One bill would increase that amount by $1-million, she said. Two more would add as much as $10-million to the statewide fund.

Pinellas County uses its annual share to help Neighborly Senior Services, the Upper Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens and the Pinellas Center for the Visually Impaired provide transportation.

That leaves about $58,000 each month to spend getting others to doctor appointments and jobs. But the county has been spending as much as $68,000 a month this year on those programs, McDonald said.

The county must lower that spending to about $56,000 a month to keep from running out of money before the new budget kicks in July 1, McDonald said. Folks like Garzieri were notified last week that their rides would end this Friday.

Riders were not the only ones alarmed. Employers worried about how their employees would get to work.

Lloyd DeFrance, the vice president of human resources at Crown Marketing Group Inc. in Clearwater, said he would be willing to give employee Veronica Mendez a ride himself. Mendez, who lives in UPARC's Pinehurst group home in Dunedin, has been working for the company for five years, DeFrance said.

Mendez's rides end on Friday, but UPARC officials said they likely will take her to Crown Marketing in a van.

"She is well-loved and very cared about here," DeFrance said of Mendez, who assembles gift boxes for people who travel on the company's vacation trips. "We'd do whatever we had to do, if we have to send somebody to get her. She's not going to lose her job over this."

Garzieri said she is hoping for the same result. In the meantime, she is trying to qualify for another transportation program through Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority. She has an interview with the bus company today.

"I enjoy working. It keeps my mind healthy," she said. "This business with the transportation . . . I don't know what to do."

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