Access Scioto County (ASC) grew out of a grass-roots effort in the early 1990's by concerned citizens and social service and government
agencies that came together to work towards establishing a county-wide coordinated transportation system to improve transportation
services for citizens of Scioto County of which transportation services were unavailable, insufficient or inappropriate.
In September of 1993, the Scioto County Commissioners and this group, which was called the Scioto
County Transportation Committee, applied for and received from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) a coordinated
transportation grant.
This grant provided funding for capital and technical assistance to facilitate the establishment
of a coordinated transportation project in Scioto County and included funds for the hiring of a transportation consultant.
In 1994 the Scioto County
Commissioners appointed an advisory committee to work with ODOT officials and transportation consultants to continue
to development the coordination project that had been renamed Access Scioto
County and to recruit a Transportation Coordinator to manage the project.
In 1995 the Scioto County
Commissioners appointed Valerie Stamper as the first ASC Coordinator.
As a coordination project
ASC established partnerships with several local agencies, including Scioto County MRDD, United Scioto Senior Activities, Inc.
and RSVP, and others that were already providing transportation to provided transportation services for elderly persons and
persons with disabilities.
The first passengers were
transported by ASC as part of the coordination project in 1996. That year 6,139
passengers were transported by ASC.
In 1998 ASC became one of
Ohio’s rural public transit systems under the Federal
Transit Administration’s (FTA) Rural Transit Program.
Under this program, which
is administered by ODOT’s Office of Transit, ASC was eligible to receive not only capital and technical assistance,
but also state and federal funds for operating expenses. Up to this point
funds to operate ASC had been provided at the local level mainly from the Scioto County Commissioners.
The most significant change
in moving from a coordination project and becoming a public transit system was ASC transitioned from only providing transportation
for the elderly and disabled to being open to the public and providing transportation services available to anyone in Scioto County.
