80% COAST funding lost

COAST was informed yesterday that all its funding from the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Public Transportation Division was being cut, a loss of $266,000.

“We are still just catching our breath on this. It means a very dramatic change in our business, and a loss of rides for many, many people,” Paige Collins, Council on Aging & Human Services executive director said after the announcement. COAST is the transportation division of the Council on Aging.

Craig VanTine, contracts and grants manager, was able to negotiate with WSDOT to get back a tiny bit of the funding, so the cut...