Kane County may to pick up Pace's portion of Ride-in-Kane funding

The Ride-in-Kane program will likely continue despite Pace Suburban Bus Service's inability to fund the call center for riders to schedule trips. Kane County announced Monday it's prepared to kick in $110,000 to help keep the call center open.

Pace provided a 20 percent match of funds to the Ride-in-Kane program for call center operations. But Pace is struggling with its own funding. It costs $365,000 to operate the call center, which handles all the trip scheduling and vehicle dispatch for the program. All local communities who partner to use Ride-in-Kane services for residents are being hit up for money to keep the call center open.

County officials believe there is enough wiggle room with the RTA sales tax dollars it receives to dedicate 1 percent of the money to the call center on an annual basis. A portion of the sales tax money is required to fund regional transportation needs. Although the money would fluctuate year to year based on how much sales tax is collected, the county estimates 1 percent is worth about $110,000 toward the call center.

Members of the Kane County Board's Transportation Committee agreed Monday that Ride-in-Kane is a worthy recipient of the money. Ride-in-Kane has nearly 4,400 registered users. Many of them are elderly, disabled or low-income residents who use the service to get to and from work or medical appointments.

"This is really a good program," said Bill Wyatt, chairman of the committee, to a Ride-in-Kane volunteer coordinator. "This, at least, gives some stability to you folks. There is stability in knowing there's a set-aside that's going to be made available to you."

The full county board must still agree to the funding before it becomes final. Ride-in-Kane must also receive funding commitments from its other local partners to keep the call center open.