The City of Minot held the latest in its series of neighborhood meetings on the topic of transit, meeting at the downtown transit center Monday.

The city has received 227 paratransit applications and has unconditionally certified 96 individuals so far, said Nicole Robinson, mobility manager with Minot City Transit. Certification is good for four years before renewal is required. Another three individuals received conditional certifications for temporary disabilities.

Robinson said only 13 people have been denied. Reasons for denial have included physical mobility, living outside the city of Minot, failure to complete applications or declining to sign releases to enable the city to obtain information from their medical providers for confirmation of their inability to ride the regular fixed route buses.

Applicants denied certification can pursue appeals.

Jill Schramm/MDN Transit Superintendent Brian Horinka points to a website projection from Minot’s new TripSpark program for bus tracking and trip planning during a neighborhood meeting at the city transit center Monday.

“Most of them, we didn’t get enough proof that their medical or their cognitive disability was something that would prevent them from riding actual fixed route services,” Robinson said. “The biggest thing that I’m looking for if I’m going to make somebody unconditionally certified is a doctor writing in that release or the information we send to them, telling us that they believe that they absolutely need this.”

City Transit Superintendent Brian Horinka said the city will not deny an application if the medical provider indicates paratransit is necessary but it may determine, based on other factors in the application, that the applicant should be certified despite a medical provider’s sense that the person can use a regular bus.

Horinka explained the certification process is a federal requirement, and doctors’ releases are necessary to confirm a disability.

There also has been an issue related to the release forms sent to physicians. A two-question form wasn’t giving doctors enough guidance to properly determine what was being asked, which led to inaccurate answers, Robinson said.

A new 17-question form now being sent to physicians goes into more depth to gain better responses from the medical providers.

“The biggest problem with us getting these certified is getting responses back from doctors,” Horinka said. “We’re sending out the questionnaire to the doctors’ offices and sometimes we’re taking weeks, if not longer, and numerous phone calls to try to get them to respond to us.”

He added that an applicant whose request for paratransit can’t be ruled on within 21 days from submittal will receive conditional certification until that ruling is determined. Conditional certification also can be made available on a seasonal basis for those who can ride fixed route buses most of the year but are challenged to do so in the winter, he said.

Minot’s switch to a federal urban funding category on July 1 also won’t impact anyone’s ability to ride after that date, Horinka said. The City of Minot will continue contracting with Souris Basin Transportation for paratransit and demand-response service after July 1. Both offer reservation based, door-to-door service, but demand-response doesn’t require disability certification.

Souris Basin Transportation’s intercity route to Bismarck also isn’t being affected and will continue five days a week with the potential to go to seven days a week after July 1, said SBT Executive Director Darrell Francis.

Horinka introduced the city’s new online TripSpark program for trip planning and bus tracking. The new system is an improvement over the previous system and is expected to be available as a mobile app soon.

Horinka also reported bus ridership is up 25% from January through May this year compared to the same time period a year ago. The city added a new routes last year to Trinity Medical Center in south Minot and in north Minot around the airport and Job Service.