Nassau Transit: Taking people where they need to go

Submitted by Anne H. Oman
Reporter-at-Large
April 23, 2015 7:49 a.m.

It’s 8AM, and phones are already ringing in the little yellow cottage on North Thirteenth Street that serves as the nerve center for Nassau Transit, operated by the Council on Aging of Nassau County (COA). Linda Jackson, Sonya Matthews, and volunteer Lisa Reese are taking calls, which are coming in fast and furious.

One caller is checking on the time of his pickup to go to a dialysis appointment. Another is asking about the bus to River City Mall. And another is making arrangements to be taken to Shands Hospital next month.

“We make appointments up to three months in advance, but they should call at least three days in advance,” explains Ms. Jackson. “We go to Jacksonville three times a week, to hospitals and doctors’ offices. It takes some juggling.”

As the customer service team juggles, driver Sam Pittman has already been on the go for about four hours. Every weekday, he leaves his home near Fernandina Beach High School at 4:40 AM, drives to the transit center on Thirteenth Street and “pre-trips” his 14-passenger white bus.

“I check the oil, and make sure the wheelchair lifts are ready by running them up and down,” he explains. “My first pickup is at Quality Health at 5:30 to take a lady to dialysis. Then I pick up another lady at the south end and take her to work at the Residence Inn.”

Then it’s time for the first regularly scheduled public transport route of the day, which leaves the Fernandina Beach Walmart parking lot promptly at 6:30. Passengers on that bus, the Jax Dowtown Direct, which transports riders to the main Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus terminal in 45 minutes, are mainly going to work, says Mr. Pittman.

“One guy is a roofer, another’s a technician at FSU, some are carpenters, another is an accountant – at least we think he’s an accountant ‘cause he’s always dressed up,” he says. “I have a good time in the morning – we all talk sports.”

Mr. Pittman, like many of the twenty certified, background-checked, drug-and-alcohol screened drivers on the COA staff, participates in both aspects of this dual transit system. Mike Hays, the COA’s Transportation Director, explains the difference:

“People see our buses and think ‘oh that’s the bus that takes seniors to the senior center,” he says. “We love our seniors, and we do that, but we also do much more. We have two systems. One we call para transit, or demand response. You have to register to establish eligibility – basically, that you have no other feasible transportation options.”

Mr. Hays stresses that this does not involve means testing.

“Maybe you’re too old to drive, or the sheriff has your license,” he says.

“You make an appointment, and we go to your home, office, doctor’s office or wherever you are and take you where you need to go,” he continues. “The fare is $2.00 curb to curb, each way.”

But it’s more than a taxi service. The drivers get to know the clients and can get help to them when needed.

As driver Phyllis Scott recalls, “Once I went to pick up a lady for dialysis. I knew she liked to get there before her appointment, so I arrived a little early. She wasn’t ready, so I checked the wheelchair lift and got some coffee. When she still wasn’t ready, I got worried. I went to the door and called, ‘Nancy, are you all right? May I come in?’”

When she entered the home, Ms. Scott found the woman on the floor, trying to get to the phone. She swiftly called 911, and the woman was treated for a heart attack.

The other COA-run transportation system, which turns four years old on May 1, is a public transit system that anyone can use.

“You show up at one of our bus stops, you pay a dollar, and you ride,” says Mr. Hays. “There’s no registration, and no reservations are required.”

The fares cover only a fraction of the cost of running the system. Grants do the rest. Last year, the system provided 56,000 rides, including 48,000 appointment rides and 8,000 rides on public transportation.

The regularly scheduled buses run Monday through Friday, except certain holidays, and serve Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Callahan, Hilliard, River City Mall and downtown Jacksonville. Schedules appear below and are included on the COA website,www.nassaucountyCOA/org.NassauTRANSIT
And this may be only the beginning, as Mr. Hays explains:

“We’re the designated transportation coordinator for Nassau County, and we’re a member of a steering committee with representatives from the Nassau County government, the City of Fernandina Beach, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Northeast Florida Regional Council and the Chamber of Commerce,” he says. “We’re studying the demand and feasibility of additional routes. There’s a public meeting scheduled for May 20 (time and place TBA), so people can tell us where they’d like our buses to go. Downtown Fernandina? The airport? Peter’s Point? ”

By now, it’s time for Sam Pittman to start the regular 10:30 run to Yulee, but he first stops at the COA Senior Center on South 18th Street to deliver some interoffice mail. As he pulls up, another white bus is boarding seniors from the day care center.

“We’re going to the beach to have fun – we love the beach,” explains a COA employee, as Mrs. Matty Johnson, all smiles, rides the wheelchair lift into the bus.

But Sam Pittman heads away from the beach, down 14th Street to the bus stop in the Walmart parking lot, where two men are waiting.

“You’ve got ten minutes,” he tells them, and one smokes and finishes his soda and the other runs an errand in the store while Mr. Pittman catches up on paperwork. Josh, who is one of the regulars and wears a black “Swaggerific” T-shirt , is going to Jacksonville for a medical appointment, while Rick is going to visit family members in Jacksonville on his day off from changing oil at Havoline Express.

“I like riding the bus,” he says.

Does he have a car?

“I’m working on that,” he smiles.

“We get people going to work, going to court, people who get off at River City Mall and come back on the afternoon bus carrying packages,” says Mr. Pittman, as the radio plays and the men talk about Tim Tebow’s chances with the Jaguars.

“Mind cutting on the air?” asks Josh, as the bus rolls over the Shave Bridge, heading west on AIA. The first stop in at the Winn-Dixie parking lot in Yulee, near the new movie theater, Family Support Services and the state employment agency. Then it’s on to the junction of Route 17 and the Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare parking lot, which serves as a transportation hub.

“There’s the Hilliard bus,” says Mr. Pittman.

Another bus pulls up on the other side, and Josh and Rick get off to board the bus headed for Jacksonville. Sam Pittman exchanges interoffice mail with driver Jamie Christian, who is headed back to Callahan and Hilliard, then waits to take two Starting Point clients home. One, a woman with long blonde hair carrying a pink duffle bag, sits silently, muttering thanks when she is dropped in front of a house in Lofton Pointe. The other, 25-year-old Johnny, who is wearing bright blue Nike shorts and carrying a smart phone, chats with Mr. Pittman, about his friend who won the lotto, his girlfriend who is visiting, his job for a landscaping company..

He rides the bus to Starting Point four days a week, he says.

“You coming tomorrow?” asks Mr. Pittman as Johnny gets off in front of a house in Fernandina Beach.

“Yeah, but I got court,” he answers.

Sam Pittman’s shift is just about over, but back on 13th Street, driver Jim Streit is getting ready for his first run. As he readies his bus, Mr. Streit, a retired publisher of suburban newspapers, talks about his job as a driver:

“I’m 64, and I’ve had two heart attacks,” he says. “I wanted a retirement job that was either fun or one that I knew would help people, and this is both. Every day, I take people to places they need to go when they don’t have any other options. The overriding thing is that at the end of the day I know I did something to make the world a little better.”

Editor’s Note: Anne H. Oman relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications. We thank Anne for her contributions to the Fernandina Observer.