Officials from the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority and CareSouth Carolina celebrated the installation of the first MARTi bus stop at CareSouth McColl on Tuesday. It is the first of 125 to be installed around the county. Mark Sobiski, director of the CareFirst Carolina Foundation, is seated on one of two benches at the site while Joe Bittle, chief of community health at CareSouth Carolina, and Don Strickland, executive director of PDRTA, stand.
Photo by Jacqueline Hough
McCOLL – Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority and CareSouth Carolina officials celebrated Tuesday the installation of the first bus stop at CareSouth McColl.
The new bus stop is the first of 125 that will be installed in the county.
Don Strickland, executive director of PDRTA, said they hoped to have them installed in the next 60 days.
CareSouth was selected as the first stop because officials said it was where the Marlboro County service really started, with partnerships with the CareFirst Foundation, CareSouth, Marlboro County and the Love Foundation.
In December 2018 PDRTA, in collaboration with various agencies and sponsors, started offering the MARTi service. The bus service is free for citizens and had a three-year commitment.
The service is now in its fourth year.
Strickland said they average 3,000 trips a month in Marlboro County.
“We definitely anticipate that increasing in the coming months and are looking to do more with workforce commuters,” he said.
Strickland added they were proud to be able to have the first bus stop installation to happen here.
“From here, it will lead to many more across the county,” he said. “You have the large covered awning where you can sit here comfortably and be able to wait for the bus.”
PDRTA has an app for passengers to download so they can live track every bus in the fleet. The app can be accessed on Google Play or the App Store by typing in PDRTA-Sync and downloading it.
PDRTA also has a demand response service along with service for Mohawk Industries.
Mark Sobiski, director of the CareFirst Carolina Foundation, said one of their other partners, Marlboro County General Hospital Charity Trust, made a donation so a smaller van could be purchased for the demand response calls. Strickland said they are anticipating the van being delivered during the first part of August.
With Marlboro County being rural and bus services going as far as the North Carolina line, officials wanted to use a smaller vehicle when it was fewer riders.
For example, the service may go to a location for one or two people to bring them to a doctor’s appointment or to take them to work.
“So having a bus that is a little more fuel efficient in this crisis we’re facing is going to be a huge bonus instead of having to send a larger bus to get them,” Strickland said.
Demand response runs Monday through Friday, with people calling 24 hours in advance. Strickland said riders call, schedule it, and the service picks them up at their home.
Riders are taken to the destination and call the main dispatch line to be picked up. The number is 843-665-2227, ext. two.
Sobiski noted the number of partners with the MARTi services has continued to stay steady and grown a little bit over the last few years.
This includes not only the Marlboro County government but the city of Bennettsville and the towns of McColl, Blenheim, and Clio. Since Wallace is not a township, officials were trying to figure out how to extend additional ridership to Wallace.
Sobiski said Marlboro County Council decided to add funding to make sure Wallace was taken care of. There is demand response in Wallace as well as a connector service between Bennettsville and Cheraw that stops in Wallace. Strickland said it has been a great partnership because they have been able to use the services that are in Marlboro County as a template for what to do in other counties.
PDRTA has been successful in Dillon County and is currently working in Marion and Chesterfield counties to be able to run a similar type of service. Strickland said what is in place today is not where they started.
“So we’ve been adapting, modifying and changing things along the way to get to this point,” he said.
In the future, they are hoping to start a connector service between McColl and Laurinburg. Officials are in talks with Scotland Health about it to possibly provide oncology services. “It’s only about eight miles (from CareSouth to Laurinburg),” Sobiski said “But for some folks it maybe very difficult to travel and this would be a way to try to help make at least a few trips a day.”
Joe Bittle, chief of community health at CareSouth Carolina, said CareSouth is very happy that the bus stops will be placed throughout Marlboro County, especially at their facilities. “We’re just very happy because it could not have been done without successful collaboration through the whole community to make this possible,” he said. “Not only does it serve CareSouth but it serves businesses in and around Bennettsville, McColl Clio, Blenheim and Wallace. For information about the MARTi service, visit pdrta.org or call 843-665-2227.