$295,000 IDOT grant to help NCAT form strategic plan

Ask anyone in the Ottawa area about North Central Area Transit, and they may talk about how the service helps people get to critical appointments across the region.

However, NCAT itself is not happy with just that. It wants to do even better.

The Ottawa-based public transportation entity for La Salle County will receive a $295,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation to be used to hire a consultant and conduct an in-depth study that would help it even better serve its client communities.

We’re very excited for the study to identify things we need to do, places we need to go, to do our job in a smart, efficient and effective manner.”

—  Kim Zimmerman, NCAT transit director

NCAT transit director Kim Zimmerman said that the IDOT grant – obtained though the North Central Illinois Council of Governments, which also will help administer it – will be turned into the forming of a strategic plan that when completed in early spring will show not only where the business can do better but also where it’s already doing well.

“We’re very excited for the study to identify things we need to do, places we need to go, to do our job in a smart, efficient and effective manner,” Zimmerman said. “One thing that I’ve wanted to do for several years is to develop a strategic transit plan for NCAT so we can basically expand services and make sure we’re meeting the needs of the communities in La Salle County, and this SPR grant will help us develop that plan.

“The study will help us meet the needs and challenges for transportation in the county, identify service gaps and other transit opportunities, perhaps partnerships with other businesses to provide additional transportation to things like employment and medical appointments, which has become a larger issue with the closing of the hospitals in Peru and Spring Valley.”

The grant is one of 30 totaling $11.4 million – $7.3 in federal funds, $3.3 millions from local governments and $788,000 from the state – being dispersed by IDOT as part of a long-range transportation plan. It is designed to aid projects that implement asset-management strategies, performance-based planning and programming and activities that grow and support economically distressed areas.

Zimmerman said that eventually the study would provide insight on whether some so-far successful portions of the program, such as the demand response service (calling for rides to and from home to appointments with specific pickup times) might be better replaced by a fixed route plan (pickups and drop-offs at certain preset times at planned locations).

Having a transit plan also could be an advantage when competing for federal grants, which all but require having one in place to get approved.

“Though our service hours have expanded in the last year, we know that we are not open enough,” Zimmerman said. “We’re still not meeting the needs of second- and third-shift employees and employers. Maybe that’s something we need to look at. We don’t want to expand just for the sake of expanding then not be needed.

“Say the study takes a year and a half, and they give us their recommendations. We can derive a transit plan that gives us, say, five to seven years of guidance for the future, all from that one study. Over that time, we’d have to come up with grant funding to purchase additional vehicles or hire more drivers … but it will tell us what resources we might need and have a timeline for when we need them.

“It’s an exciting opportunity that will help us better serve our communities.”