At a regular meeting July 17, Cottonwood City Council directed staff to look into alternatives to a current grant-based taxi voucher program which provides transportation for disabled residents in addition to the Cottonwood Area Transit’s paratransit program.

The meeting was held in the Public Safety Building rather than the council chambers to accommodate the large number of disabled residents who came to speak on the subject.

The city had applied for a $10,000 transportation grant in February 2012 to continue to fund the voucher program, in anticipation of the re-integration of the Cottonwood Area Transit system and the addition of the Verde Lynx Transit system.

The Northern Arizona Council of Governments Agency on Aging and the Arizona Department of Transportation would have provided $5,000 each in grant money to expand transportation options for disabled residents of the Verde Valley.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, July 25, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.