Commissioners applaud CIS and Transportation Department
By Frank Bradley Staff writer

"Calling it one of the best programs we have in the county," Commission Chairman Hubert Cheeks, applauded Becky Smith for the work she has done in providing rural transportation for local residents.

The board also passed a resolution approving a community transportation grant application for 2008/9 asking for $230,000 in monies provided by the federal government and passed through the state.

Smith said the county is averaging 80 trips a day for residents and that cost per passenger is going down, although the cost per mile is going up due to the increased cost of fuel.

"We're combining more people in the van who are going in the same direction," Smith said. "The new airport shuttle is catching on. We're making the runs four days a week, and it is going much easier than anticipated," she said.

Smith said she is getting requests from people outside the county who want to take advantage of the shuttle. Mostly from Georgia, she said.

"I'm trying to get a ruling from the state whether or not we can let them ride," she said.

The county public transportation is provided for elderly folks and especially for those with medical needs outside the county. Smith said that 95% of the trips for medical services are outside the county. Asked about those needing transportation for dialysis, she said that need "comes and goes."

The cost for a resident going to the Atlanta Airport is $75; to Asheville Airport is $35. The cost of going for medical appointments is $35 to Atlanta; $25 to Asheville; $20 to Gainesville, Georgia or Waynesville, N.C. Smith said the transportation department is prepared to take a resident anywhere they need to go it they can get to it and back in a day.

The county currently has 13 vans and two buses in operation, and expects to have a new county transportation building up near the cell tower, behind the new courthouse. Smith said the building is scheduled for completion in July.

This is the transportation department's 10th year of operation.

In a report to the commissioners, Theresa Waldroup, who is director of Community In Schools, said they will also be celebrating their 10th anniversary

this year (in April). Regarding the past year's activities,

she said the program supported

435 parents and guardians with 225 children and adults who had been referred. There were 121 volunteers who assisted 113 children and 112 adults who had been in crisis, she said. Volunteers put in a total of 3,000 hours last year with much of the work having to do with completion of the Spike Buck Mound.

Waldroup said volunteers worked with all three schools, the elementary school being the most involved, followed by the middle school and the high school.

Tutoring and the extra attention provided by the volunteers helped the children improve and also helped keep them in school, she said.

Waldroup said there were four main projects undertaken by CIS last year that continue this year. They were 1) teachers working on the Spike Buck Mound web site, which provides an opportunity for distant learning; 2) the Truett Baptist Association Children's Home, which will be in operation beginning in February and will enable six children from Clay, Cherokee and Graham counties to move back nearer home. The building was purchased on a lease/purchase basis (an independent story will appear in the Sentinel in the next week or two). On January 2, Barbara Ford was hired as supervisor and manager for the home. 3) the Pioneer Village. The county obtained a grant to fund two graduate college students to complete the design of this village, which is being moved from its original Tusquittee site to downtown Hayesvillle. 4) the Gym, situated back of the Veteran's Park and ball fields, this new facility has numerous county employees and school personnel using it as well as other residents of the county.

Waldroup said they weren't able to get all the money wanted for it, calling it a Chevy instead of a Cadillac. "It's a blessing to have that facility," she said.

CIS has applied for a "dropout" grant to track students from the 6th grade through high school, Waldroup said. She added that CIS is looking for native pottery, baskets, literature, books and maps for Pioneer Village. Finallhy, she reported that Glen Love had received the CIS award for the past year for his work with schools.

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