MOUNT VERNON – Knox Area Transit (KAT) will open its community transit center as a central hub this year to offer connecting routes so county residents can travel where they need to go.
Bethany Celmar shared plans for KAT in 2023 in her second week as the agency’s new transit director.
“One of the most amazing, exciting things that we have coming soon is a brand-new building that will be started next year,” she said.
The agency has purchased 503 West High St. and 7 Norton St. for $200,000. Celmar said they also are buying Lot 4 of the Heartland Commerce Park for $110,650 for the bus depot and lot.
In KAT’s current location, they can’t operate a transit hub, so they have few routes where riders can go to a bus stop on a fixed route. So instead, most riders are on an on-demand service, which picks them up from their house and takes them directly to their destinations.
When funding became available, KAT was able to start up its free-ride circulator in the shopping area in Mount Vernon.
“So it’s been a great kind of, I guess I would say, experiment just trying to find better ways to serve the public and meet the needs of folks as they try to get from one spot to the other and get their shopping done, and get their groceries and everything that they need out in our kind of main shopping area in the county,” she said.
She said that with a good, steady clientele and a positive reception, they probably would look at other areas to do something similar.
The main goal is getting into the new building and getting other routes operating.
“Some of my other goals ... are getting people connected to work and workforce, I know that finding transportation to work is a barrier, and we will be working on that [from] different angles and solutions,” Celmar said.
They have a working relationship with Licking County and will work proactively to connect county residents to potential work at the Intel plant being constructed there. Connection to Columbus is another forward-thinking project.
KAT will work with other employers in the area and continue to find better ways to serve people who have disabilities and the elderly.
“This is my second week," she said. "So definitely still very excited to be jumping in and trying to serve Knox County in this way.”
KAT provides, on average, about 7,300 trips each month, Celmar said. Half of those trips are given to the elderly and disabled.
“The elderly make up about 18.8% of the county’s population, and 10.3% of the population under the age of 65 have a disability," she said. "Therefore, we use our resources to the fullest extent to be able to provide for the significant need for public transit in our county."
Knox County has 1,169 families that do not own a vehicle and almost 3,000 that only own one vehicle.
“That’s a very limited or not a lot of access to transportation for those families,” she said.
For some people with disabilities, it’s the only way they can get around. KAT has bigger vehicles with wheelchair lifts, she said. They offer services to help folks get to medical appointments and even to get dialysis.
“We certainly have quite a few people that are very dependent on it for medical reasons, being able to get around for those that have disabilities,” Celmar said.
