STEUBENVILLE — A plan to coordinate transportation services for the needy will be reworked after the Jefferson County commissioners questioned certain elements of the document.

Commissioners first raised concerns about the plan at their Nov. 15 meeting, specifically the naming of a mobility manager. Members of the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association, Ohio Department of Transportation and the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission were at their most recent meeting Thursday.

Jeannette Wierzbicki, OMEGA executive director, said the overall goal of the transportation plan was to get senior citizens and the needy to doctor appointments and other places. She said the plan calls for transportation providers to work together so residents have access to transportation.

County Commissioner Tom Gentile said he is concerned about the mobility manager dictating which transportation service would be utilized, and Commissioner David Maple said the board reviewed the proposed plan and objected to the mobility manager.

Wierzbicki said there has been a reduction in federal funding for transportation services, coupled with an increase in the need for the services because of the Medicaid expansion. She said ODOT officials believe it is a good time to look at areas of the state to see if transportation services can be better coordinated.

Wierzbicki said the mobility manager will be eliminated from the plan but the commissioners still have to give their blessing to the document in order for agencies in the county to receive ODOT funding for vehicles.

Judy Owings, Prime Time Office on Aging director, said the organization can receive 80 percent funding by ODOT to replace aging vans used in handicap transportation services. She said the current handicap vans have mileage in excess of 100,000 miles and need replaced. She noted she is concerned about not getting the state funding.

Commissioner Thomas Graham went through points in the plan about the mobility manager, with Maple saying he is worried about government taking over transportation services in the private sector. He agreed with the goal of providing transportation services to the underserved, especially in rural areas of the county.

Olivia Hook, ODOT statewide mobility coordinator, said the transportation plan, which is sponsored by BHJ, hasn’t been updated in eight years. She said the residents and transportation providers, which helped write the plan, now will rewrite sections of the document after the concerns raised by the commissioners.

Commissioners might take action on the re-written plan in January.

In other matters, commissioners were given an update on 4-H activities by Janine Yeske, Ohio State University Extension Office 4-H educator. Yeske, who will be retiring in about a month, said there were 430 youth involved in 4-H when she started 20 years ago. Today, there are 600 members in 32 clubs throughout the county, she said. There are 130 adult volunteers.

4-H was started in the county in 1922, Yeske noted.

Commissioners commended Yeske for her work with the youth of the county.

Commissioners agreed to provide $3,000 in recreation funds for landscape work around the Mooretown Civil War Monument, located on County Road 53, Bergholz. Virginia Glenn, who has worked for years to get the monument restored, said the land where the monument is located is owned by the Ross Township trustees. Commissioners in the past have given money for work on the monument.