Taxi! Prince William Board funds elderly rides program in rare budget move

Elderly and disabled residents in Prince William will still get rides to their doctors appointments.

In a unanimous vote, the board voted to waive their rules on waiting for action and gave the Wheels to Wellness program $160,000 – a program the county does not operate.

Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland said that the move by the board was unprecedented. The county decides to fund selected non-profit and charitable organizations during its budget process each spring. It is rare to see board move to fund a project of this size after the budget has been passed.

Dozens of the 613 program participants sat at the Prince William County Government Center McCoart Building in Woodbridge and spoke to supervisors about why they should continue to fund the program. The program has been operated by the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, funded by a 3-year grant from the Potomac Health Foundation.

That grant had been set to run out August 11.

“I spoke to some folks who said, ‘if this program ends, I will die’…many of them lived on fixed incomes, where I cannot even begin to wonder how they put groceries on the table – much less getting them to medical services,” said the 82-year-old former Woodbridge Supervisor Hilda Barg.

“My patients would have to choose between getting to dialysis – which is a life sustaining measure for them…or buying medication, or buying clothing, or buying food. I am really pleading for this program to continue. Wheels to Wellness has been a wonderful program,” said Kathy Trambley, a clinical social worker for a Woodbridge dialysis center.

“The benefits of Wheels to Wellness have been a godsend to my sister and me. If we were not able to use [the program] I would be traveling 350 miles a week to provide her transportation, and spend almost 20 hours a week in waiting for her. [This program] has provided my sister with a great deal of independence. It has been very physically and mentally beneficial for her to be independent in some areas of her life,” said one resident, whose sister uses the program.

Wheels to Wellness provides elderly and disabled residents with a trip card that would cover their costs for a taxi dispatched from Yellow Cab Prince William, for only their medical-related appointments, stated the program’s manager Karen Mills.

According to Mills, the program costs $40,000 every 45 days.

Mills and Barg stated that they are working to establish the program as a 501 (c)(3), partnering with Northern Virginia Family Services, and local medical facilities to fund the program going forward.

During the supervisors’ discussion, conditions including a reporting requirement, and a guarantee that it was a one-time funding source were adopted.

The county will continue to fund the program using money from their fiscal year 2015 contingency funds, according to Chairman Corey Stewart. The board keeps $500,000 in contingency funds in reserve each year, according to county documents.

“[Prior to the meeting] we met with the County Executive, to see what we could do. The board does want to do what we can do, to at least help provide a stop-gap measure of funds,” said Stewart.

The funding will give Wheels to Wellness six months to find additional funding.