LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor,

According to recent newspaper articles and editorials, some Cape County residents, especially senior citizens, who need transportation may not know about the service Cape County Transit, Inc., can provide for them. We believe the following will be helpful to those in need of our services.

Cape County Transit is a private not-for-profit corporation governed by a five-member volunteer Board of Directors. The eight current employees include the manager, five drivers (three full-time and two part-time), and two dispatchers (one full-time and one part-time). Our transportation fleet consists of five vehicles: three six-passenger mini-vans, a standard 14-passenger van, and a wheelchair lift van which will accommodate two wheelchairs and four walk-on passengers. All vehicles are equipped with two-way radios.

Cape County Transit is located in Jackson in Cox Memorial Hall at 225 South High Street. We provide curb-to-curb general public transportation within Cape Girardeau County. This includes service to and from the City of Cape Girardeau for County residents.

Anyone can ride, however, most of our riders are elderly or handicapped and use our transit service for shopping, medical, business, nutrition, educational and social purposes. A suggested donation list is posted in each vehicle for these riders. For example, $2 is the suggested donation for a one-way trip from Jackson to Cape. For those riders under 60 years of age and not handicapped, the cost is considered a fare and is double the amount shown on the suggested donation list.

The office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those riders who complete the medical appointments later than expected, however, can be picked up until about 5:30 p.m. for the return trip home.

Trips may be scheduled by calling the office at (573) 243-1835. Since we have only one wheelchair lift van, we suggest it be scheduled 24 hours in advance. In addition to curb-to-curb service, we have three scheduled runs from Jackson to Cape each weekday. They leave at about 8:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The scheduled return runs from Cape to Jackson leave Cape at about 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Thank you for allowing me to let your readers know about our services.

Dareld Davis

Jackson, Mo.