MOUNT VERNON — Hillary Patterson
began her new job as administrator for MOTA on Dec 1.
Patterson said she is excited about her new job and is looking forward to making
MOTA serve the county better than it ever has before.
Patterson comes from a business background, having worked at the Mansfield Correctional
Institution as an account clerk and business administrator for nearly 23 years.
She has an associate degree in business administration from North Central State
College in Mansfield and a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from
Ashland University in Ashland.
Patterson’s duties include accounts payable and receivable, arranging advertising,
working on contracts for MOTA’s services, writing policies, supervising
the operations managers and reporting to the board of directors. She also does
the organization’s taxes. MOTA employs 44 staff members, including drivers,
dispatchers, a mechanic and office personnel.
Patterson has had to deal with some changes early on, some negative, she said,
but many positive.
“On Jan. 4, we had to cut back on our hours, unfortunately,” she
said. “That was due to a lean budget, so we had to cut back. We didn’t
want to lay anybody off, so we didn’t do that. We were happy about that.
But we hope to resume our regular hours once we get past this kind of bumpy period
that everybody is experiencing.
“We work with ODOT,” she said. “We get grants from them. The
majority of our funding is through grants — federal, state and local.”
On the positive side, she said, there are some changes coming that will help
improve service. Patterson said MOTA has 25 vehicles and will be getting eight
more. Those will be arriving about February or March.
“We are really excited about that,” she said. “We have a couple
that are down right now and need some money put into them, and we hope they make
it to the delivery date for the new ones.
“Our goals are to make MOTA more recognizable and accessible,” she
continued. “We specialize in handicap transportation. We have four sedans
and once they are gone, every single MOTA vehicle will be handicap accessible.
That’s a requirement by ODOT. We just want to get out there and let people
know we are available, not just for certain things. If your car breaks down,
you can call MOTA and we are available to anyone in Knox County. We want people
to realize we are here and we can get them from point A to point B.”
Anybody can ride MOTA, said Patterson.
“If you are 65 or older or disabled, you can ride for half fare,” she
said. “All you need to do is come in and fill out some paperwork. That’s
what we do. We’re here to keep the community moving.”
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