Ottawa Continues Push For County Transportation System

The city of Ottawa is taking charge in bringing a public transportation system to La Salle County.

The Ottawa City Council is filling out a grant application to receive 900 thousand dollars to start up countywide transportation.  Mayor Bob Eschbach sees a system where cities, hospitals and social service agencies like Horizon House pull resources together and offer rides throughout the county.  Eschbach says Ottawa will be administrator of the system by dishing out funds but will ask North Central Illinois Council of Governments to run the day to day operations like hiring personnel, providing office space and dispatching vehicles for pickups.

The grant requires a 50 percent match for mileage and 20 percent match for administrative costs.  Eschbach says this money will come from existing costs of cities, hospitals and others already offering transportation.