Board calls for investigation of transportation needs of senior center

Currently four major buildings in the Town of Amherst are not accessible by bus - the Police Department, court, the town's main library and its senior center, all located on John James Audubon Parkway.

At its Jan. 7 meeting, the town board agreed an investigation into the matter should start with transportation services for seniors.

Initiated by Council Member Dan Ward, the resolution calls for an ad hoc citizens advisory committee to study the issue. The committee will have seven members - one for each member of the Town Board. Results were requested within six months of the committee's formation.

The committee will be asked to make policy recommendations "to remedy these transportation problems, and improve the quality and quantity of such senior transportation to the Amherst Senior Center."

Also, the committee is asked to thoroughly investigate the operations and procedures of Amherst Transportation for the Elderly Inc., the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, and its bus system, any other transportation sources and systems, as well as, the needs and desires of Amherst senior citizens, both those who currently are using the center and others who either don't or can't access or use the center.

In Ward's resolution he said complaints have periodically surfaced as to the quality and quantity of transportation to the senior center by residents, who either do not drive there themselves or are not driven there in privately owned vehicles.

According to Ward, the only transportation to the Amherst Senior Center is owned and operated by AETC, with a number of small vans.

"There are not enough of these vans, they do not have enough capacity for handicapped/disabled seniors, their routing does not adequately service the entire Town of Amherst and they are too expensive," he said.