The Porter County Aging and Community Services board and staff marked another year of helping community members through its key programs, providing transportation, nutrition, energy and emergency assistance.
Outgoing board president Cliff Malings said PCACS buses were able to remain on the roads at an expanded level.
“With lower fuel prices and support from the Porter County Council, we had seven buses on the road 10 hours a day,” he said. “That is very important to us as an organization.”
For the year, the agency provided 24,275 trips totaling 291,217 miles and added two new buses to its fleet, which replaced some of the older buses.
PCACS Executive Director Bruce Lindner said when the buses reach their useful life of 100,000 miles they are returned to Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission where they are auctioned off at the annual sale.
“The funds from the sale go into the PCACS bus replacement account at NIRPC, which is available for us to use on our next purchase,” he said.
“The buses typically are utilized for 100,000 miles and replaced about every three years, but that is expected to change with the loss of funding from the RBA (Regional Bus Authority). We will probably have to go to a four-year rotation on each bus in an effort to stretch our bus replacement dollars.”
The current fleet will be receiving a new look as the buses will be wrapped with ads sold to community businesses. The revenue from the ads will be used to help PCACS purchases new buses.
With the United Way of Porter County’s Emergency Assistance Program, the agency helped many families, assisting 186 who faced various challenges by utilizing $48,000.
“The federal Energy Assistance Program also helped even more area families with energy assistance. It helped 1,700 families during the winter months with $600,000,” Malings added.
With the continuing weak economy, some of our programs may be affected in the year ahead, Lindner said.
“We are reviewing some possible changes at our Senior Nutrition Program in Hebron. We hope to remain active in that community, but probably will have to reduce the number of days we are open from five to three per week,” he said.v PCACS’ mission is to extend a helping hand to seniors, those who are disabled and low-income residents by providing services to improve their quality of life, including transportation, nutrition programs, energy assistance and activity centers.
For more information, visit http://www.portercountyacs.org/.