CUMBERLAND — Despite budget cuts and and cost-saving measures, Allegany County Transit again will rely upon federal and state grants to continue providing mass transportation services.

And Jim Stafford, Allegany County Transit division chief, said it’s likely to stay that way.

“There’s no way we’d be able to provide transit services” without aid from those two sources, he said on Monday during an annual public hearing about that very issue.

Slightly more than 50 percent of the division’s annual operating budget of $1.91 million is funded through such grants. Allegany County government provides the lion’s share of the balance, Stafford said, with rider fees providing a small amount of revenue.

At the County Office Complex on Monday, Stafford and Roy Cool, transportation manager, outlined the division’s request for $190,800 for the next fiscal year. The bulk of the grants, if approved, will go toward the purchase of new vehicles, radios and to fund a preventive maintenance program. This year’s request is for fewer dollars than this time a year ago, Stafford said, because of $916,600 received through President Barack Obama’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

The ARRA money has purchased four new buses ($282,000) and provided $200,000 to construct a shelter to protect the division’s fleet of 25 buses and vans from inclement weather. The Lafayette Avenue facility in South Cumberland also is getting a new security system ($68,400) and replacement of a dated electrical system ($85,000).

Another $250,000 covers preventive maintenance, which includes services ranging from an oil change to a grease job, Stafford said. Unfortunately, said the county’s top transportation officials, none of the stimulus funding is able to be applied to operational costs.

So the county can buy it, they said, there’s simply little money to operate it.

It’s one reason why county transit is considering the use of a Pontiac Montana van to haul passengers around on an occasional basis. It’d be less costly and, equipped with four-wheel drive, safer in winter events, such as this weekend’s snowstorm.

The van would be used on a regular basis for riders needing para-transit services and, primarily on an emergency basis, for other passengers as well. But it’s not meant to become a competitor with private taxi services, Cool said. Should it become possible to cover a particular route by sedan or van, he said, “we probably need to discontinue with that route.”

Stafford said the county is set to begin updating its transportation development plan, last modified in 2003. The process will be a public one with focus groups and public meetings. The last plan resulted in the modification of existing routes, Stafford said, to better serve the public.

Since then, Stafford said Allegany County Transit’s ridership has more than doubled since its current route alignment, implemented in fiscal year 2005.

A total of 170,647 riders have paid for passage on Allegany County Transit compared to 74,843 four years ago, according to figures provided by Stafford.

Para-transit service ridership also increased, to 18,682 in fiscal year 2009 from 12,363 in 2005.

Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.