T-L Photo/CARRI GRAHAM Harrison County Commissioners Paul Coffland, left, and Don Bethel speak to representatives from E.L. Robinson during Wednesday’s meeting.

CADIZ — A transit program is expanding its services to include Harrison County after securing additional grant funding earlier this year.

Mobility Manager Jill Cunningham met with Harrison County Board of Commissioners recently to let them know the program is now offering services in the county, in addition to Carroll County and Tuscarawas County, where she currently works.

“I do mobility management, and I will be coming into your county. … You may ask what mobility management is. It’s basically just helping the community and those with transportation barriers find solutions for those barriers,” she said, adding that her office, which operates out of the senior center in Tuscarawas County, is grant funded through the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Cunningham said it was recently implemented through the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association to cover “as many counties” as they can. She said they help provide transportation opportunities to seniors, individuals with disabilities, low-income persons and also the general public.

“Anybody can call … if anyone is having transportation needs, need help making those connections. I can help coordinate regionally. We help people that have to travel distances from your county into Columbus. I can make those connections,” she said.

“We were recently able to help a resident, I believe they were afforded with $1,400 for a trip to Columbus. Once they received my name, we were able to coordinate and her trip is actually going to cost nothing,” she said.

Cunningham said she is the bridge between residents and available transportation providers.

“As a mobility manager, we are not allowed to schedule or drive clients. We are just here to be that connection and educate the stakeholders within the community and let them know how important having a public transit company is,” she said.

She said she aims to be more available in all three of the counties she now covers so that she can locate gaps in services and discover the community’s needs pertaining to transportation services.

“That’s what my goal is. Whether that’s surveys in the community, speaking engagements, outreach to the community, just to kind of have more input so we can make the services better and more complete,” she added.

In other matters, Bob Allen and Brandon Conley of E.L. Robinson, the engineering company hired by the county to assist with the Harrisville wastewater treatment plant project, met with commissioners about a few matters concerning the ongoing project.

Conley said Border Patrol, which is performing the project work, will need some additional time to complete the project as a couple breakers that were needed and recently ordered will take a little over a month to receive.

“The completion date was slated for April 4 and if we didn’t have this issue they would have made that. So we are proposing to add 90 days to that, which would move the substantial completion date to July 3 and final completion to Aug. 2,” he said.

The project, costing around $320,000, includes the replacement of the UV disinfection unit and installation of an automatic bar screen to remove debris and prevent trash from entering the system. It is fully funded through a Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association grant designated for plant upgrades.

Commissioners accepted the change order presented, which included the project extension and an additional charge of $14,957 for the cost of the items needed.

Also, Conley provided commissioners with an invoice for $10,804 for E.L. Robinson’s services from Dec. 13 through March 20.

Allen noted he is pleased with the work being performed by Border Patrol on the Harrisville project.

“As soon as we get the electric squared away and that material in, I think it will be done great,” he said.