The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published April 11, 2018

OATS Transit announces new Lake of the Ozarks route

COLUMBIA - Starting in July 2018, OATS Transit will add another route to its system that will operate in the Lake of the Ozarks area. The route will operate under the name Tri-County Transit, and will be a deviated system running in Camden, Miller and Morgan counties.

This will be a deviated route, meaning the bus is allowed to travel up to two miles from the route to pick up those who might need the assistance and can’t get to an actual bus stop.

This new service, provided by OATS Transit, will service 18 communities in Camden, Miller, and Morgan counties with two buses, running 10 hours per day covering a 125-mile loop.

“Affordable, accessible, efficient and safe public transit can be a great connector between education, employment, housing, child care, medical care, and services that will improve individual’s quality of life” said Jack Heusted, OATS Transit Regional Director.

Heusted will oversee this new route as part of his existing 18-county operations.

“OATS Transit is very excited to be a partner in this project” added Heusted.

Starting in July individuals can call OATS Transit Camdenton office to schedule a ride on this new route by calling 833-582-4960. A task force, called the Lake of the Ozarks Transportation Council, was formed in April 2016 to address transportation barriers in the area. Ed Thomas, Director of the Camden County Developmental Disabilities Resource Board, was instrumental in promoting the need for such service around the Lake.

“If we can remove some barriers and make it easy in a public transportation system for people to be able to access it, then we can probably eliminate a lot of the hardships experienced by households and families, and also employers,” Thomas said.

Headquartered in Columbia, MO OATS Transit is a private, not-for-profit corporation providing specialized transportation to the rural general public, individuals with disabilities and senior citizens in 87 Missouri counties. Governed by a volunteer board of directors, the organization has a staff of over 760 employees and a fleet of 800 vehicles statewide.

The home office is located in Columbia, Missouri with regional offices and satellite offices located throughout the state. OATS has grown to be one of the largest and most unique systems of its kind in the country. For more information about OATS Transit please visit their website at www.oatstransit.org, for follow us at www.Facebook.com/oatstransit