Grassroots efforts give rural W. Va. residents a transportation solution

Monroe County residents ride the new MTA bus route to
Walmart. (Photo by T. Spencer, Mountain State Spotlight)

Residents in Monroe County, West Va., now can take a bus to school, work or doctor's appointments, thanks to the efforts of the county's transportation committee.

Tre Spencer reports in the Mountain State Spotlight that the committee negotiated a deal to get new bus routes from the Mountain Transit Authority.

Like many rural people across the U.S., Monroe County residents have struggled to get to work or care for themselves because of poor transportation options. Spencer explains, "Jeana Carr is the county’s Head Start director and has worked directly with families and parents since the late 1990s. She said most families either relied on one car or didn’t have one at all." Carr told Spencer she spent years listening to community assessment results that listed transportation as the number one need. 

Carr's hope for providing a county transportation plan gained traction when Beth Massey, the threat preparedness coordinator at the Monroe County Health Department, got on board, and the two women joined forces. Spencer reports, "Massey and Carr approached the county commission with their concerns, and the commission formed a transportation committee, appointing Massey to lead it."

Members of the transportation committee knew that to get state help, they would have to prove the community had a viable need. So they decided to deploy a solid, community research project that included help from a local grocery store, residents who needed transportation, and the county's 911 service.

Once research results were completed, "the committee approached the state’s public transit authority, the Division of Multimodal Transportation Facilities," Spencer adds. "State officials directed them to the Mountain Transit Authority. . . . and Tim Thomas, MTA’s general manager, had been looking to expand to Monroe County for a while."

The committee grappled with how federal and state transportation funding works with additional community funds. "With the federal grant requiring a 50% match, the county commission put up $30,000, and MTA is working to put up the remaining funding to expand to more routes and days," Spencer reports. "By early March, buses were carrying riders across the county three days a week."

Tre Spencer

To read the detailed account of Monroe County's grassroots busing success story, Spencer's full story is here.