COEUR d'ALENE — Kootenai County is opening the bus doors to better serving senior citizens and those with disabilities.

A dial-a-ride program is expected to be added as early as next month to the Citylink paratransit system that serves those populations in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Huetter and Dalton Gardens.

The program would make public transportation more accessible to residents in those cities who aren't near the existing bus route.

"Our office receives calls from people who have no options for transportation due to age or disability and it causes us great angst to tell them we have no solution for them simply because of where they live," said Kimberly Hobson, program specialist with the county's Public Transit Office.

"While we are working very hard to encourage local investment into the transit system (for the current system), we had to find a way to meet the unmet needs of the most vulnerable in the community. It was out of this desire to serve the community better that we secured funding specific to creating this dial-a-ride project."

A Federal Transit Administration grant of $300,000 that was funneled through the Idaho Transportation Department and $20,000 in matching funds from the Area Agency on Aging, along with approval from Kootenai County commissioners, will make the program a reality.

Clients will need to apply for the program to qualify for the rides, which are proposed to be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends (excluding major holidays). County staff is working on the logistics of the application process.

Under a draft plan, to qualify for dial-a-ride you must be a Kootenai County resident with limited access to transportation and meet one of the following criteria:

• 65 years or older with identification;

• over 18 and considered disabled by showing proof you are receiving disability benefit under Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income or Veterans Administration Disability;

• Medicare card holders; or

• use a wheelchair or have semi-ambulatory capabilities.

To start, the rides would be at no cost. However, a service and fare analysis of the overall local public transit system is expected to determine a fee.

"It is important to note that we have worked with our Social Services Advisory Board to make sure that we have provisions in place to assist those who may be lower income, seniors or have a disability," Hobson said.

Residents would be limited on the number of rides — perhaps four round trips or eight one-way trips — that they could have per month under the dial-a-ride program. Reservations would be accepted Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the reservation office would be closed during the noon hour and on Saturdays and Sundays.

The county, through collaboration with local nonprofits, residents and social service agencies, identified areas outside the existing paratransit zone where service is particularly needed, including:

• the Silver Creek apartment complex and Camelot Estates on the west side of Post Falls;

• the area that straddles southern Hayden and northern Coeur d'Alene in the corridor that contains Panhandle Health, TESH and Community Action Partnership; and

• areas on the west side of Highway 41 in Post Falls that have a lot of dense, low-income housing.

"A great majority of multi-family housing for these specialized groups (seniors and those with disabilities) are often placed on, or outside, the outskirts of the city limits where there are significant barriers to transportation services," a project description states.

"People are essentially left to walk several miles to a bus stop or to be stranded with no access at all to doctors, work or grocery shopping."

Clients will reserve a ride through a dispatcher and, if bus service isn't available at the particular date and time the person wants, another time may be arranged. Pickup areas to serve as many residents in a particular area as possible will be determined.

"This will not be a door-to-door service," Hobson said.

A GPS system on the buses will be installed in January to assist with scheduling logistics. It will also allow passengers access to an application that will track the bus locations and arrival times in real time.

Hobson said pre-set weekly shopping runs from specified areas is also being considered under the dial-a-ride program.

Clients must be able to make appointments, shop independently, be able to meet the bus at specified times in designated places, carry their own packages and self-ambulate.

Kootenai Health currently offers a transit system for people to its facilities that complements the Citylink paratransit service.

Meanwhile, Hobson said Citylink routes that serve the general population in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Hayden are expected to be tweaked in 2017 to include stops at the Post Falls Food Bank, Post Falls Senior Center and Panhandle Health.

Hobson said some people are walking to Panhandle Health from the Hayden Wal-Mart.

Routes will also be changed to run clockwise rather than the current alternating system that's confusing, Hobson said.

Hobson said the goal is to find a project manager for the construction of the new transit center in Riverstone in March. County commissioners are expected to vote on whether to expend matching funds toward the project in early 2017.