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Community Corner

Seniors need a bus

The Town of Tiverton has a large senior population with many in their golden years. Many of the seniors have no family in town as their kids moved to find work because of the bad condition our economy is in. The Town has a senior center which provides services for those who can't drive anymore. The senior director has a list of seniors who need help getting to the grocery store or other retailers. As a town we supported a bus that was used to transport these seniors lending them the hand they need. Many of these seniors have no one to take them shopping and they are not able to do it themselves. Last year the bus the town uses broke down and it's beyond repair. The bus was used when we received it from RIPTA with over a hundred thousand  miles.  Our public works garage did it's best to keep it going till rust and a bad injection pump put it out of service. These buses are cheap enough to purchase used, but our town council has made no effort to find one. 
The Town council has transferred over a hundred thousand dollars to an account to hire a full time planner. Keep in mind the budget committee voted against a full time planner and only provided for a consultant. The voters passed a budget that also provided for a part time planning consultant. My question is why hasn't  the town council advertised for a used bus when there is more than enough money in their budget. They transferred ninety thousand from the police departments budget to the future needs account several meeting ago. We could buy four buses with that amount. We don't need a full time planner in this town. We do need this bus, and now! This council needs to get it's priorities strait. We should have the bus in service now. We don't need a Planner at over ninety grand a year.

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