The silent protest recruited three dozen individuals who sat
and stood during the entire meeting until selected public
speakers were permitted to address the Sylvania Township
Trustees during the non-agenda portion of the meeting.
“I’ve been taking the bus for over 60 years,” began Mary
Stapleton, Toledo-area resident. “I rely on TARTA because I
don’t drive, and cab services are too expensive. We need to
change from property tax to sales tax.”
The second testimonial was delivered by Paula Mathis. “No
one can transport me, because my chair is too large and
weighs 200 pounds. I’m actually close to tears right now.”
Mathis pointed to her wheelchair and continued to address
the trustees. “I pray you find it in your heart to continue
services. TARTA services are the only way to get around the
area for $5 roundtrip. If you’re not in this situation, it’s
really hard to understand.”
The protest was organized by Shelly Papenfuse of Disability
Rights Advocate, and Rev. Cedric Brock, pastor of Mt. Nebo
Baptist Church and president of Interdenominational
Ministerial Alliance .
Immediately following the last testimony, Sylvania Township
Trustees Jennewine and Mahoney addressed the protesters in
attendance.
“There are some new faces here. We said TARTA is the right
service and we’re sticking to our guns. Since the levy
didn’t pass, I’ve been asked to join the new transit board,”
said Mahoney. “I don’t want you to think we’re bad people.
We wanted TARTA, I feel like we’re been mis-represented by
the media. My heart is in a good place, and will I
communicate on this process with the transit board, but I’m
not the only one who raised concerns about TARTA. The Toledo
Blade and County Commissioners have raised concern about
TARTA and leadership. I wanted to be crystal clear.”
“All of these cuts and loss of services came at a surprise,”
stated Trustee Jennewine. “The cuts are being blamed on us
and these cuts weren’t mentioned to us. I hope we can come
up with a good idea. Saying that we are preventing this is
furthest from the truth. I’m focused on TARTA leadership and
why they didn’t mention this earlier.”
Most Sylvania Township residents would support the new
Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority proposal to expand
its service area and hours and implement a sales tax to pay
for the expanded service according to the results of a
telephone survey conducted by Odesky and Associates of 300
likely voters in the township.
According to the survey, 46.3 percent supported the TARTA
proposal, 21 percent were against it and 32.7 percent were
undecided; 58 percent favored a sales tax and only 5.7
percent supported a property tax.
The protesters organizers outlined their next steps towards
ensuring the TARTA proposal is on the 2020 General Election
ballot in front of supporters before leaving the Sylvania
Township meeting.
“Our focus still remains the same, we need to change how we
fund our regional transit services because there isn’t any
money. I don’t care what task force is formed, it doesn’t
change the real issue, that we do not fund TARTA properly,”
Papenfuse began. “TARTA cannot sustain itself by
continuously being underfunded. This group will continue to
work on addressing that issue to move transportation for all
county-wide.”
“This doesn’t end, we’re here on behalf of the people that
we represent,” said Brock. It was a major disappoint to hear
the comments that were given by the Trustees. We’re not
trying to make this a war, because they (the Sylvania
Township Trustees) do a great job at what they do by
managing the township well. We are here to speak on behalf
of our community, that’s it. We still plan to meet with the
Lucas County Commissioners and also Representative Marcy
Kaptur. We want to push them to meet with us.”
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