WARREN - Commissioners on Wednesday began the transition of transportation services provided by the county's Job and Family Services and Elderly Affairs to the board that runs Trumbull County's public transportation system.
The reorganization will take place over the next 90 days and will include the elimination of all transportation employees in elderly affairs, including its executive director and mobility manager, by Dec. 31 and then transfer those positions to the transit board, according to a resolution approved by commissioners.
Also, money JFS and elderly affairs get to provide transportation will be used to attract federal transportation dollars that make up about one-third of the budget used to Niles-Trumbull Transit System, which the other services will be rolled into.
''The ultimate goal through communication, cooperation is to come up with a completely integrated system, a transportation system that reduces or eliminates redundancies and inefficiencies,'' said transit board vice chairman Glenn Holmes.
Officials don't anticipate the changes will affect service for people using the systems. ''We'll continue to provide service at the present level and we're hoping to be able to expand those services more efficiently,'' Holmes said.
JFS this year got about $1.3 million in mostly federal funds for the different types of transportation it provides, which includes work- and non-emergency medical-related rides. Elderly Affairs has several different contracts to provide transportation to the county's elderly.
Fact Box
Attorney steps down
Attorney James Floyd has stepped down from Trumbull County Transit Board, which he has led since it was created in July 2011.
Floyd said his resignation to county commissioners was effective Tuesday.
The vice chairman, McDonald Mayor Glenn Holmes, will assume the chairmanship. The board meets next on Tuesday in the hearing room on the fifth floor of the county administration building.