The Logan County Board of Commissioners (LCBOC) recently became aware that RTC Transportation Services would be reducing their scope of operations as of Jan. 17, 2025, and this week provided a detailed timeline regarding funding issues as reported by the organization.
“The Logan County Commissioners are extremely concerned about the loss of this valuable resource and are investigating options that will provide effective transportation to Logan County citizens,” the commissioners said in a release.
July 18, 2024, the board of commissioners was made aware by representatives of RTC Services that RTC was experiencing financial losses due to reduced funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation.
“RTC indicated that they would need approximately $350,000 to continue operations without cutting hours and services,” the commissioners said in the release.
“The LCBOC at that time reached out to many state government elected officials to ask for consideration to reinstate the previous level of funding provided by the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). It was hoped that with funding reinstated, RTC could recover from these losses and continue to provide services as normal.”
While state legislators were considering the situation, representatives from RTC once again visited the commissioners Aug. 15 with an update. RTC indicated that they had begun to cut services, but had not cut hours.
The commissioners suggested that RTC should reach out to the state officials themselves and “tell the story” of their need for funding. The LCBOC offered to make calls again and to host a meeting with representatives with RTC to help communicate the great need for this funding.
Then on Oct. 3, RTC Services provided another update to the commissioners, indicating that RTC was behind on their single audits as required by law and to receive funding from ODOT.
The audits for years 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 had not been completed as required. The accountant for the 2021 audit had become unavailable, and RTC was looking for a new accountant to handle the audit process.
RTC representatives said they had requested audit extensions during this time of hiring a new accountant and ODOT was aware of the status of the audits.
The new accountant was set to begin audit year 2021 in November 2024, to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, and continue on with each audit until finished.
The RTC representatives indicated in this meeting for the first time that ODOT would not award a contract to RTC until all of the audits were completed and that the RTC contract for reimbursement from ODOT expires on Jan. 19, 2025.
In addition, the Logan County Board of Commissioners became aware that a $1.3 million federal grant program to rehab the Logan County Transportation hub building and garage at 315 W. Auburn Ave. was being suspended by ODOT due to the financial audits not being completed by RTC Services as required by ODOT and the Federal Department of Transportation. ODOT stated it would not fund the project until the RTC audits were completed.
Dec. 10, the RTC Board of Directors visited the commissioners’ office and stated that ODOT was not reimbursing RTC for services provided and that RTC could not continue to provide public transportation due to this lack of reimbursement. At that time, the stated end date was anticipated as the first week of February 2025.
In addition, the RTC Services Board members indicated that since ODOT would no longer be reimbursing RTC Services for expenses after Jan. 19, 2025, that they would be suspending operations on that date.