Another successful year has come and gone for the HSTD Department. As we make our way into Fiscal Year 2009, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the past year.

 

Making the move into our new state-of-the-art facility came with both its pros and cons. Together with the help of Brad, Johnnie, Bruce and many others, the transition was virtually trouble free.  If you have moved recently, I’m sure that you can remember the headaches in trying to find items once they have been boxed, moved and unboxed.  We are extremely proud to have such a wonderful facility that allows for the expansion we needed to continue to grow. The move has truly been a team effort and I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and the long hours put fourth in making our dream a reality.  

 

The Pi-Star vehicle tracking and asset management project continues to be very successful as we are now using the custom designed system exclusively as our scheduling software. With the help of the IT department, we have installed and began testing the system in all L.K.L.P transportation vehicles. We are just a few days away from beginning the testing phase for two of our subcontractors. This system is a great management resource tool for the broker and will ultimately be just as useful for our subcontractors and for public transportation. In the near future, we will start rolling the system out into the remaining subcontractor’s vehicles as we continue to strive toward a purely paperless and virtually fraud free system.

 

It seems that the entire agency pitched in a little bit to help us get our proposals together and respond to two different RFP’s. We made two trips to Frankfort to deliver several boxes of data each time and then we had to wait patiently for the results. As my old baseball used to say, “You win some, you lose some and some get rained out.” We lost Regions 5 and 3 but gained Regions 1 and 4 in the western half of the state, and we didn’t win any new territory in the eastern half of the state. But, we didn’t lose any either as we retained all of the counties we now have in the east. As of July 1 we will be the broker for the following counties:

 

Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Marshall and McCracken counties.

Breckinridge, Grayson, Hardin, Larue, Marion, Meade and Nelson.

Bath, Boone, Bourbon, Boyd, Bracken, Breathitt, Campbell, Carroll, Carter, Clark, Clay, Elliot, Estill, Fleming, Gallatin, Grant, Greenup, Harlan, Harrison, Jackson, Kenton, Knott, Lawrence, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Madison, Mason, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Owen, Owsley, Pendleton, Perry, Powell, Robertson, Rowan and Wolfe counties.

 

Bruce Brown and I have been living the life of a drifter as we continue to travel week after week to the West, Central, and Northern parts of our great commonwealth. All local offices are up and running, contracts are in place and we are collecting the miscellaneous documentation from the subcontractors as we speak. With the help of David Martin our Community Relations Specialist, things will be running effortlessly in no time.

Region 1 (Paducah/Fulton/Murray area) was flawlessly implemented and is already operating on all cylinders thanks to the hard work and flexibility of the subcontractors in that area. Javeen Martin is running the local office, which is located at 324 Harrison Street in Paducah. Region 1 Local Office Phone: (270) 442-9250

 

Region 4 (Elizabethtown /Bardstown area) is also up and running. We are continuing to recruit more subcontractors in the area and have also negotiated a contract with the previous broker, TACK, and will be using them as a transit provider. Our new office space is a tremendous bargain, as it exceeds 3000 square feet and is located in one of the busiest areas of Bardstown. The address there is: 1000 E. John Rowan Blvd., Suite 107. We have hired a lady by the name of La’Kea Yates to run the Bardstown office, and to assist the Region 4 facilities and subcontractors when needed. Region 4 Local Office Phone: (502) 331-9928

 

Region 13 is running like clock work, as usual, and there will be no changes whatsoever in our provider network and how we interact with them. Lori Tolliver, our Subcontractor Compliance Specialist, is working feverishly to get the contracts and related documentation from all of our subcontractors and has submitted it to the Office of Transportation Delivery for approval. Jason Collins, our Region 13 Vehicle Inspector has also been toiling away as he strives to get each and every vehicle in Region 13 inspected. Jason has been a true asset to our department and I would like to thank him for his the work and dedication he has contributed to this program.