The Meridian City Council delayed a vote last week on a proposals to provide transportation service to city residents to further discuss what services were needed in Meridian.

While a transportation service is needed, some council members have expressed concern that the city’s current provider, Choctaw Transit, is not meeting the city’s need or doing enough to advertise its services.

Council member Ty Bell Lindsey said she could not recall ever seeing a Choctaw Transit vehicle in town.

“It’s almost like there’s an invisible ghost,” she said.

Council member Romande Walker said she also has concerns about Choctaw Transit’s visibility in the community. Walker said she had gone so far as to sit at pick-up and drop-off points but had not seen the transit service in action.

Choctaw Transit Director Jeremy Bell told the council that transportation services are up and running in Meridian, but are still below pre-pandemic levels. Instead of multiple busses running in Meridian as before, he said the number of residents using the service only warranted one bus on most days.

“We used to have two to three busses, but then when the pandemic hit we started going out with one, and we’re slowly bringing two back,” he said.

Bell also pushed back against claims that Choctaw Transit only handles medical transportation. While trips to Anderson Regional Medical Center and dialysis facilities were responsible for a fair amount of its ridership, Bell said the transportation service would take riders wherever they needed to go.

“We can take anyone to medical, recreational, shopping, wherever,” he said.

One solution to clear up some confusion, Bell said, is to hire Meridian residents for Choctaw Transit’s Meridian office. Having people who know the area and know what services are offered will go a long way toward fixing the communication errors about what the transportation service provides.

Another need, Bell said, is to fix the telephone lines and HVAC systems in Choctaw Transit’s offices inside Union Station. Calls for Meridian service have been rerouted through the company’s Philadelphia office, he said, as they work with the city to address the issues.

Community Development Director Craig Hitt said solving the HVAC and telephone issues is a work in progress.

“We have been working on that for several months actually,” Hitt said. “No one seems to know how all the units work down there and where the vents run. Service master is doing some research for us, and obviously it’s taking way to long, but we’re doing everything we can to work through that.”

Under the city’s current contract, the city is providing Choctaw Transit with the office space at no charge and is covering the cost of utilities as well. One thing to note, Hitt said, is that perk was not included in the new contract.

“This new contract does not provide the office space like the previous contract did,” he said.

Hitt said the council could choose to add the office arrangements back into the contract, but it was not currently included.

Bell said Choctaw Transit would likely need to go up on its $104,142 bid if the office space was not included. The additional cost, he said, would be needed to offset the daily trips to and from Philadelphia.

In its Nov. 22 work session, the city council also heard from two other transportation services, Caring Hearts and Dream Chasers, about the possibility of bidding on the service. City Attorney Will Simmons said the council would need to throw out the current bids and restart the process if it wanted to give the other companies a chance to submit bids of their own.

The council voted last week to table the transportation issue and is expected to continue discussion in a work session Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. In the meantime, the city is operating on a 90-day contract extension with Choctaw Transit to maintain service while the council works through the bid process.