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The fate of the Lansing Older Adult Program (LOAP) van is hanging in the balance.  Connie Wilcox returned to the Lansing Town Board last week to provide more facts about the van.  A month ago she told the board that the volunteer dispatcher would be stepping down, and that there would only be one or two volunteers left to drive the van.  She also noted that while the town owns the van it has never operated it, and usage is way down.  This month she provided more data to help town officials decide whether to keep the aging van in service, replace it, or simply get rid of it.

"To be truthful, the LOAP van has never been the responsibility of the Town, other than purchasing, insuring and maintaining it.  It started out as a function of the Lansing United Methodist Church (LUMC) and LOAP -- which is not to be confused with the senior citizen's group.  They're two separate groups.  Between the Methodist Church and LOAP they found volunteers to dispatch and drive, and they were often drawn from the churches.  But there is no more LOAP in Lansing.  So maybe it's time to look at the validity of maintaining and keeping the van."

Wilcox said that almost no older adults use the van except for a few residents of Woodsedge Apartments.  She said over half the Woodsedge residents have their own vehicles, and a large percentage of them rely on family and friends to get them where they need to go.  She asked the office manager at Woodsedge to survey the residents to see what their usage actually is.  28 residents responded.

"24 said they do not use the van at this time," Wilcox said.  "Four use the van on a limited basis.  Some did say they might use it more in the winter.  One of the comments was that they really like to have the van so they can go to the food pantry because they can gather their goods and deliver it right to their door.  But that could be a function of the church -- perhaps volunteers could take their food to them."

Councilman Ed LaVigne said that Lansing Food Pantry Director Nancy Myers told him that the mobile food pantry could be made available to come to Woodsedge.

Wilcox said that the LOAP van is aging, and while it has low mileage, it's rusting out and in need of repair.  She noted it is not handicapped accessible, and would cost around thirty to forty thousand dollars to replace.

She met with David Stoyell of the Tompkins County Office for the Aging.  Stoyell provided her with a list of transportation options available.  There are a number of transportation options listed there, as well as on Way2Go cards distributed around the county, including at the Lansing Town Clerk's office.  They also called Gadabout.

"They said they make many trips to Lansing on a daily basis to take people to doctors' appointments, grocery shopping, banking, hair appointments, etc," Wilcox said.  "they have raised their cost to $3 each way.  And you need to set up an appointment with them -- you can't just call that morning and say 'I need a ride.'"

She also checked with the manager of Woodsedge, part of CRM Rental Management, Inc., which manages many such properties.  He told her that none of their other facilities have a service like the LOAP van.

"I talked to some of the people who are involved with other elderly housing, and they don't have this kind of service," she reported.  "They depend on Gadabout.  This is not being used for all of the elderly people in Lansing.  It's just being used for a select group.  If you're going to do it it needs to be town-wide."

Wilcox was not encouraging about the van's future.  Between the cost to the Town, the dearth of volunteer drivers and the very low number of users, she stopped short of recommending the van be scrapped, but told the Board they will have to decide whether it is worth it.
 
"It's not up to the Town to take care of the dispatching and driving," she said.  "I'm just giving you the data.  You need to decide what you want to do.  It's a tough decision to make, but times change and the volunteers aren't here any more."

Supervisor Kathy Miller thanked Wilcox and told her the Board will discuss the issue at a working meeting.

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