VIDALIA, La. – Eloise Thompson calls the Concordia Council on Aging’s transportation program, which she uses each weekday, &uot;a blessing from God.&uot;

&uot;It’s a blessing for a lot of us who don’t have transportation to go to the doctor or to pay bills,&uot;&160;said Thompson, 83, of Ferriday. &uot;Otherwise, you’d have to pay someone $5 to take you uptown, and a lot of times people don’t want to be bothered with you. I’d hate for them to stop (the van service).&uot;

But unless the council can raise $30,000 in donations in the next six months to make up for cuts in federal funding, it will have to cut back its transportation program, which has served the disabled and people 60 years old or over for more than 20 years.

Three vans now run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Ferriday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Vidalia on weekdays, each taking 60 people a day to errands and to the council’s Vidalia lunch site and Ferriday senior center. &uot;There are plenty of others we could serve – if the vans ran more hours,&uot; said Director Dorothy McDonald.

But because the service doesn’t have enough fare-paying customers – donations aren’t required, and hardly any can afford it – the federal government cut from its 2000-01 budget the $30,000 it pays each year to help fund the program.

So in the next few weeks, McDonald will be writing to local businesses, agencies and churches for donations. If the money isn’t raised, the buses could end up running one less hour a day – cutting into the time clients have to do vital errands.

&uot;The average person who uses this service doesn’t have a car, so they rely on us 90 to 95 percent of the time to go to the doctor’s office, pay bills, go to the beauty shop,&uot;&160;said Assistant Director Marjorie Bowman. &uot;For many, we’re their only source of transportation.&uot;

Many elderly people do not have cars or cannot drive or renew their driver’s license due to health problems, McDonald said.

But if the council can get the funding to keep the van program going, some good news is on the horizon. Since the federal government exempted the council from an insurance requirement, its vans can now take clients to Adams County.

&uot;Before, we couldn’t take them across the river, even to the doctor, because to do so we would need to carry $1.5 million worth of insurance, which was prohibitive for us,&uot;&160;McDonald said. The vans will start service to Adams County as soon as possible, she added.

The council is a non-profit agency whose programs include feeding programs, health and nutrition education, a Med Alert program and other information and assistance programs for the elderly. It relies on funding from the federal, state and local levels and the United Way.

But while the Concordia Parish program faces cutbacks, public transportation in Adams County, including service for senior citizens, may soon be expanding.

Sabrena Bartley, Natchez Senior Multi-Purpose Center executive director, said Natchez Transit is in the process of scheduling new routes. The new routes should extend the area of service and hours of operation.

The Natchez Senior Citizen Multi-Purpose Center operates a public transportation system from separate funds provided by the Mississippi Department of Transportation and matching funds from local government.

Bartley said she feels the public is not aware of the opportunity provided them by the transit system.

&uot;People aren’t realizing you can use the transportation to get to work and to get home,&uot; Bartley said. The average one-way fare is around $1, she said.

Anyone interested in accessing public transportation within Natchez city limits should contact dispatch at 442-5082.

Staff writer April Wortham contributed to this report.