Photo by Shelley Hanson Chad Zambori, director of Belmont County Community Access, Resources, Education and Solutions program and the county’s new mobility manager, talks during Wednesday’s regular Belmont County Commission meeting.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Commission was presented Wednesday with a new Coordinated Transit Plan for Human Services during its regular meeting.

The plan was presented by Ethan Combs, transportation planner with the Bel-O-Mar Regional Council. Also present was Chad Zambori, director of the Belmont County Community Access, Resources, Education and Solutions (CARES) program and the county’s new mobility manager.

Combs said it had been several years since the county last updated its plan.

“A coordinated transit plan is a federally mandated plan. It makes your county eligible for 5310 funds,” he said, noting the funds are used for programs and projects serving seniors and people with disabilities.

“It looks at how people get around the community: seniors, people with disabilities and low-income residents,” he said. He added the plan helps identify needs, gaps and priorities for transportation for residents traveling to jobs, health care, entertainment and more.

Combs said there are advantages to a county-focused plan.

“There’s more data and it’s more granular,” he said. “It’s a deeper dive into the analysis of transportation in Belmont County.”

He said the planning committee included a mix of agencies and nonprofits, including the health department, the Department of Job and Family Services, and senior services.

Public meetings were held along with planning meetings and focus sessions. A community survey on transportation in the county received 199 responses.

“A lot of community people had to be involved with it,” he said.

Combs said the final plan will be available on the Bel-O-Mar Regional Council website at https://belomar.org/

in the next few days to a week.

Commissioners and Zambori thanked Combs for his work on the plan.

“I can’t give Ethan enough credit for what he has put together here. I came in late to the game. … Without Ethan doing the planning that he did, I would have been inundated and absolutely lost with what he actually did with this plan,” Zambori said.

“The mobility manager is about connecting residents with existing transportation resources. We’re not providing any transportation to them. So we’re one contact now instead of people talking to multiple agencies.”

For transportation resources, call the CARES program at 740-827-0004.