Commissioners approve Council on Aging 1st quarter claim and application for 2025 funding

Janis Holiday, Director of the Marshall County Council on Aging has a couple of items for the County Commissioners during their meeting on Monday.

The first item was the 1st quarter claim with a total of $149,138 of expenses and revenues of $14,821 leaving a net of $134,315.  Holiday told the commissioners half of that, $67.157.50 is the claim to INDOT for the 5311 grant. The Council on Aging put in $20,000 of the PMTF that they will receive this year leaving a local match of $47,158.  The commissioners approved the claim as presented. 

The 2nd item Holiday gave was the presentation of the first quarter stats which showed 7,692 trips totaling 59,283 miles.  The number of trips was up over 600 more than the last quarter of 2023.  She noted that the trip counts are consistently going up. While denials were down slightly, the transportation service had to deny 64 requests for in county trips and 91 requests for out of county trips.

The third item to be considered was the application to INDOT for the 2025 5311 and 5339 grants.  Holiday told the commissioners the operating expenses for next will be $609,907 and estimated revenues from passenger fairs and Medicaid at $55,000.  The federal share will be $277,453 and that will be matched locally including the $57,000 the Council on Aging gets from the state. 

Holiday said they plan to purchase two new vehicles in 2025, one medium transit bus and one mini van for $213,981.  Eight percent of the cost of the vehicles will be purchased through a federal grant and the local match is twenty percent. 

Currently the Council on Aging has 10 vehicles, 8 of which are past their useful life with over 100,000 miles.

Commissioner Kevin Overmyer asked if the process to acquire new vehicles was any easier and Holiday said they received two new vehicles last year, two new vehicles are in this year’s budget and the two new ones approved during Monday’s meeting for 2025.

The commissioners passed the authorizing resolution for the Council on Aging’s application for 2025 funds.