NILES BUS SERVICE Social worker spreads word

Some dialysis patients will save money by using the new bus service.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Anne Flaum already has a notice up on the bulletin board at the Centers for Dialysis Care-Howland.
A social worker for the renal care facility on state Route 46, Flaum wants patients to know they have another option in getting to and from their dialysis appointments.
"It's just wonderful," she says of the Niles-Trumbull Transit System, which is expected to begin operations early next month. "I am having one of the girls help me make a big, fancy sign."
NTTS, the brainchild of Niles Mayor Ralph A. Infante, will be a demand-response busing system operating throughout Trumbull County for people without transportation for medical appointments, shopping and other needs.
Riders call to schedule a pickup time from their home or any other location for a minimal fee.
Niles leaders awarded a contract earlier this month to Community Busing Service to operate the system. It was the final step toward operations, after months of legal battles kept buses off the roads for almost a year.
Officials from Youngstown-based Western Reserve Transit Authority, which operates a fixed-route busing system through Mahoning County and portions of Trumbull, objected to the bidding process and possible conflicts of interest between Niles and Community Busing.
The appeals process went through the Federal Transit Authority in Chicago, which ruled in July WRTA had no legal claim.
Who's involved
Several communities -- including Niles, McDonald and Howland Township -- and the Trumbull County commissioners have signed on with NTTS, pledging $1 per resident to pay the cost of operations.
The bus system is open to any county resident, but those in participating communities will be charged a cheaper rate.
Estimates are that trips to Niles, Warren, Howland, Girard, Liberty, McDonald, Weathersfield, Vienna and Cortland will cost $1.50 one way for those 55 and older, children age 2-12 and anyone with disabilities.
All others will be charged $3 one way.
For trips to other areas of Trumbull County, the costs will increase to $3 one way for seniors, children and the disabled, and $6 for all others.
Flaum, who worked with Infante and other community leaders to push for the new system, said the costs will be minimal compared to what some clients at CDC-Howland are paying now.
She has some clients who travel from as far as Newton Falls, who pay $25 for van transportation, plus $1.25 per mile. And that's one way, she noted.
"It can run them $60 a day, three times a week," she said.
Some taxi cab companies offer slightly cheaper rates, and local churches will provide transportation, but those costs could still be as much as $48 a week, she said.
Advantages
The NTTS bus system will greatly reduce the costs for those receiving dialysis, she said, and help reduce stress on the patients and their families.
"One of the most difficult things for dialysis patients is that not all of them have access to their own transportation," she said. "Some are blind; some are frail; some are just too sick to drive themselves."
Flaum noted that dialysis patients do not have the option of skipping an appointment if they cannot afford transportation.
"This is a life-and-death thing for them," she said. "They can't miss a treatment."
Dialysis is a medical procedure used for patients whose kidneys have failed. The procedure -- which takes about three or four hours, three times a week -- performs the functions of the kidneys so the body can operate.
Many of the 86 patients at CDC-Howland, Flaum said, rely on relatives for transportation to appointments.
"We have one woman whose husband brings her and he sits in the waiting room for four hours," she said.
By using NTTS, she said, patients will be able to come to appointments by themselves.
She estimates as many as one-third of the clients could use NTTS to travel to CDC-Howland, but she says she wouldn't be surprised if the numbers grew quickly.
"I'm curious myself to see how many people will use it regularly," she said.
slshaulis@vindy.com