Transportation staff member Kristina Dronava and Transportation Director Edward McNally at the BCAC's Elm Street location.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Community Action Council is looking to reinvent and expand the BerkshireRides program.

 

BCAC took over BerkshireRides in January after serving as the financial agent for six months. And its contract with the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority to transport individuals with disabilities was not renewed.

 

The organization is now crafting a brand-new transportation program to provide not only rides to work for low-income families and individuals but also rides anywhere else they'd need to go. And they want it to be countywide.

 

"We are nonprofit. We are not motivated by profit; we are motivated by mission. So for us, we can keep the cost of transportation low, which is the ultimate goal," Executive Director Debra Leoncyzk said.

 

The new program will start this year provided the state continues to fund the program; BerkshireRides is also asking for additional seed money to expand its area. Currently, the program provides rides to work for North County and the group wants to expand the types of rides and the geography. 

 

"It is a fairly simple process. They say they want a ride and there is an account they pay into. You pay for the ride, we pick you up and bring you back. You just tell us what time you have to be at work. If you have a child that needs to go to daycare, that's part of the morning trip," said Transportation Director Edward McNally said.

 

McNally said once they get a sense of the ridership, they'll craft routes around those signed up for rides. The goal is to provide an option for those who do not own a car as they try to lift themselves out of poverty. 

 

"It fits nicely in our mission. Our mission is that we serve as a catalyst to stimulate quantifiable changes in people's lives as they work toward self-reliance," Leonczyk said. "Essentially, we provide programs for the low income to help move them out of poverty."

 

McNally said he heard of four employees all calling out of work at the same business because they had all depended on one vehicle, which had broken down. A taxi ride from Sandisfield to the Berkshire Mall could cost upward of $100, Leonczyk said. The last bus leaving the mall is around 7 p.m. but those working there may need to stay later, she said.

 

"Lack of affordable transportation creates a significant barrier to low-income folks looking for work. If you don't have a car and you live in areas of Berkshire County that are not serviced by the BRTA or you have a job opportunity that straddled their hours of operations, you are out of luck," Leonczyk said.

 

With the BRTA contracting its service for those with disabilities to other groups, BCAC now has 26 leased vans and 45 employees to contribute to the new program. The hope is the state provides additional resources to use those in expanding.

 

"That contract was not renewed and we have an existing fleet and infrastructure that ready, willing, and able to get out there and do something new," McNally said. "Flipping over to BerkshireRides seems to make sense."

 

Leonzcyk said she is putting together copies of the business plan for the new model to give to legislators in hopes to get the seed money. In this year, they are using some $200,000 of their funding from federal and state sources to build the new program. Eventually, the agency is hoping to end its reliance on taxpayer funds but needs to time to get the other revenue sources on board.

 

"We want to ween ourselves off of state and federal funding. In order to do that, we need to have everybody understand their responsibility," she said. 

 

The program will be mostly funded from the fares of riders but it is also asking large employers of low-income residents to kick in to offset the cost, for other community agencies to help and, eventually, asking the towns it serves to contribute. The program will also be working with local food pantries that often give out taxi cab vouchers to provide them with a lower-cost voucher.

 

Additionally, BerkshireRides is encouraging employers who use the program to offer transportation benefits accounts, which will allow the employees to put pre-taxed money aside for transportation.

 

After this year, any employer benefiting for the services are going to have to pay a little extra.

 

"We can't offer it free to one part of the county and make another charge," she said. "The intention isn't to make a profit but the cover our costs."

 

BerkshireRides had years of unstable finances which led to BCAC taking over the program.

 

Eventually, BCAC sees the transportation-to-work program working throughout the entire county, it needs to build the revenue streams first. BCAC also envisions opening a call center with which employees will work to develop the best transportation plan to get the person where they need to go — whether that means through BCAC's program, the BRTA's, cabs or a mixture of them all.