Oneida County ADRC committee approves DOT grant application

The Oneida County board’s Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) committee has approved for submission to the Department of Transportation (DOT) a plan for transportation of the elderly and disabled.

That plan, approved on Nov. 25, will be used to determine whether the ADRC will receive grant funding used for transportation services provided by the Oneida Vilas Transportation Commission (OVTC) through Northwoods Transit Connections (NTC) which is based in Rhinelander. 

At the moment, NTC is a Monday through Friday service which includes wheelchair capability on its buses with routes running throughout Vilas and Oneida counties. 

In October, the Rhinelander Common Council voted to discontinue its participation in the federally and state funded Shared Ride program for 2025; in 2024, the city contributed $25,000 to the program. 

Running Inc. is the company currently operating Shared Ride for the city. For 2025, the amount sought from the city for the Shared Ride program was $75,000 which prompted the decision to cancel. The cancellation was the subject of an Oct. 24 meeting of the OVTC, which oversees operations of the NTC. 

NTC director Barb Newman told the commission she has spoken with Rhinelander city administrator Patrick Reagan about the matter and the possibility of NTC “offering a fixed route” was discussed. 

“They’re taking a year off,” Newman said of the common council’s decision. “They’re not going to be spending any money in 2025 toward public transportation. The comment was made at the (city council) meeting Hodag Cab would be the taxi service for Rhinelander.”

She said there was no money in the NTC budget to run a fixed-route as well as the current five-day-week schedule of runs. 

Newman said her suggestion is NTC would continue to run its routes as it has, including those to Minocqua, Eagle River and other locations in the two counties. She said she’s spoken to representatives of Hodag Cab and Lakeland Cab “to see how we could make this all work.”

“I haven’t reached out to any of the private providers to see if they’re going to be able to help pick up the wheelchair passengers,” Newman told the commission, adding that she planned to meet again with Reagan after the first of the year to further discuss the situation and how NTC could help in the future. 

After-hours emphasis

Prior to last week’s approval of the grant application by the ADRC committee, a public hearing was conducted. 

Grant Bornbach with Advanced Medical Transport of Rhinelander addressed the committee, going over a portion of the guidelines provided for the DOT grant application which states counties may contract with private transportation providers such as his company.

“That’s the first section of the first page of the guidelines,” he said. “I think maybe that’s kind of telling, almost like encouraging, the use of private companies and that’s not without precedence.”

Bornbach mentioned several Wisconsin counties contract with private transportation companies “to fill the gaps and needs” for people “who need to get where they need to go.”

“With the Shared Ride taxi service in Rhinelander leaving, it looks like, I think there’s going to be more gaps,” he said. “Specifically, like after-hours.”

Bornbach mentioned the current NTC operating hours, which are during the week. 

“They don’t operate on the weekends and there’s other special situations but really the after-hours, specifically the people that need to go to urgent care after-hours or discharged from the hospital.”

Bornbach said his suggestion is to hold the public hearing for the grant application conducted sooner in the year. 

“Like in April, for instance,” he said. “That would give us time ... to see what the gaps are with the Shared Ride taxi service and yeah, maybe you should consider some of the more creative options that some of the other counties have done and explore where the county can create the best outcomes, the best bang for your buck.”

Future planning

Following Bornbach’s remarks, Oneida County social services director Mary Rideout told the committee she believes the gaps in after-hours services he mentioned have been identified. 

“We need after-hours and weekend transportation options,” she said. “Especially for our wheelchair folks and people who need accessible transportation.”

Rideout said she agreed the discussion is one that should take place earlier in the year but said losing the Shared Ride program in Rhinelander this late in the year “and finding out about that kind of late didn’t help us to do better planning around that.”

“That certainly is a gap we’ve identified and make sure we’re filling and reaching those folks and that there’s transportation options available,” she said. “As we all know, transportation in general is difficult in the Northwoods so the more options we have for folks and the more we can partner with private companies, the better off we all are.” 

Later the same day, during a meeting of the common council, Bornbach outlined a temporary solution to the Rhinelander community’s transit issues in the wake of the discontinuation of the Shared Ride program.

“I’m here tonight to lay out maybe a temporary solution to the problems that are going to result from the cancellation of the shared ride taxi service,” he explained. “Hodag Cab, they are good people. They run a 24-7 taxi company. They don’t have wheelchair vans, but they can pick up anyone that’s ambulatory that used to ride with Rhinelander Public Transit. And then starting January 1st, my company, Advanced Medical Transport, we’re going to start an on-demand service for people in wheelchairs, and that’ll run 24-7. And we’ll do it at the same rates as the outgoing Rhinelander Public Transit. We’re willing to do this for three months, so from January 1st through March 31st, and that’ll give us, you know, quite a bit of time to collect data and do some proper needs assessment. And then we’ll just kind of take a look at everything and figure out the best way to go from there.”

Bornbach noted that his company owns 15 wheelchair vans and has been in business for six years.

Tim White, co-owner of Hodag Cab, said he expects to employ many of the drivers who have been working for Rhinelander Transit.

“I feel bad for John (Haack; manager of Rhinelander Transit) and his employees,” White said. “We at Hodag Cab will absorb as many (Rhinelander Transit) employees as we can accommodate to help your employees continue on serving the community like we do.”

“We don’t have any plans on raising rates,” added Hodag Cab co-owner Cheryl Salzman. “We don’t have any plans on changing anything that we’re doing. You know, just getting these people where they need to go on a daily basis.”

City officials have previously noted that the Shared Ride service could resume in 2026, if necessary.

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].