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Massachusetts Grant Program To Infuse $2.5 Million Into State Taxi Businesses

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MassDevelopment

Two Massachusetts agencies – the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and MassDevelopment – have awarded $2.5 million in grants for taxi and livery companies in 47 communities, including some in Berkshire County. The effort is intended to bolster local transit to help state residents with everything from making it to their COVID-19 vaccine appointments to providing rides to food shelters or childcare centers. WAMC spoke with MassDevelopment President and CEO Dan Rivera.

RIVERA: It's going to help as much and as long as the name of the program. It's a big help, I think. You know, so in that spirit of, like, what can we do, can we lift every effort to support communities in this COVID-19 era? I think this relationship with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to help communities really fight this, you know, bring the help to the final mile. And so a partnership between MassDevelopment, the Area Planning Council, and community-based organizations or municipalities, we're trying to help people dealing with COVID-19, that final mile, helping them to get to stores, help them to get medical emergency medical appointments, you know, vaccines, testing, all those things. And with the different groups across the Commonwealth, there can be different tactics.

WAMC: So what exactly is the target audience for this program?

You know, I think if you look at the awardees, you're going to find that it's going to be from elders to babies. From moms who are trying to get tested for work, or getting their kids tested for school, to elders who are trying to get the vaccinations, or testing, or to, you know, to get food even. Even to the RMV or emergency childcare. Like, Mass211 is an organization using this award to contract with County Rainbow Taxi to facilitate non-emergency medical transportation, so again, people maybe having to go to housing court to deal with, you know, an eviction notice in Berkshire County.

Now, it's obviously a public-private partnership. Why was that method chosen over say, working with public transit or something in the in the public sector?

Yeah, I think the approach is not either-or. It's both. And so I think that you're going to find that the Regional Transit Authority is still doing their job. And you're going to find that all the other transit business that we do as a Commonwealth are still going to do those things. This is, how do you reach those people who have that little bit more help as needed. And using this industry, the taxi industry to do that is a really appropriate use of the money that we get from them, in support of them as we transition through this, you know, stuff with these other transit companies, nontraditional transit companies, you know, we got to help out the folks that are still in the taxi industry. And this is a great way to use a surefire industry in moving people to deal with some of the big problems that we're facing during COVID. Volunteers In Medicine Berkshires, they're going get $83,000 to contract with Berkshire Taxi Company to facilitate non-emergency medical transportation in the Berkshires, even transporting people from, you know, to Boston and Springfield to get non-emergency medical help.

Now, as far as the kind of communities are working with- It's 47 cities and towns. What was the strategy in identifying which municipalities could use this program the most?

Listen I think that the Metropolitan Area Planning Council along with the staff here at MassDevelopment have become very good at understanding, reading through all of the folks who applied for the money and seeing who was going be able to leverage it fastest and have that large amount of impact. And so I would suggest to you that, you know, there was no secret sauce, there was just, who was going to have the biggest need and have the most impact and I think that's reflected in the people who were, who have won these, who have gotten these awards.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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