It’s an idea being discussed by the County Executive.
Middletown, Md (KM) The town of Middletown appears to like the idea of a rural community shuttle. Burgess John Miller says Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner met with mayors and burgesses last month to get their thoughts on the proposal.
Miller says it’s not mass transit. “It would come to Middletown one day per week. It would actually like almost like an Uber-type service where you could call and schedule the use of the bus. They would come to your home and pick you up and take you to various destinations in the town of Middletown,” he says
The shuttle bus could even travel to some locations outside of the limits of Middletown. “It could go out to some of those outlying areas within several miles of the town,” he says. “It would not be something that, for example, it would be a Middletown service and it run up to Myersville or down to Jefferson. It would just be here and maybe out to some of our outlying communities, Fountaindale, the Legends and some areas like that that are outside the town limits.”
Brit it would not be a shuttle service to and from Middletown and Frederick, Burgess Miller says.
He says it’s difficult to say whether this service would catch on in Middletown. “I know from talking with some of our seniors or our senior advocates out here that I don’t know how much the service is drastically needed. So I’m not sure how much it will be used. But it’s also one of those things once you provide the service, then people tend to know this is available and take advantage of it,” Miller says.
He says the service could cost the town between $10,000 and $15,000 which he call “in our comfort zone.” . The county says the cost for this project would be $210,000 per vehicle per year, including service for four days per week. If a dispatcher is needed, that would at $64,000 to the cost.
Miller says he and the Town Commissioners discussed this proposal earlier this week. “We’re looking at some next steps. We’re trying to get our own town’s stamp of approval on these proposals. And we’ll go back to work out some specifics and then our town and other towns will have to take a vote and find out if they want to contribute some funding toward it,” he says.
By Kevin McManus