WSDOT about face

There was no explanation of why Washington State Department of Transportation announced it planned to cut COAST’s funding last week and none when it pivoted on that decision Saturday to make no cuts at all.

COAST Executive Director Paige Collins received word on Saturday—which coincidentally was her birthday—the transportation arm of Council on Aging would have the funding to continue providing its services.

“The decisions I was starting to make were giving me a lot of heartache,” she said.

As of Friday, COAST was facing a cut of 80% to its annual budget which would have nixed all non-Medicaid transports.

COAST was pleased to announce the change first thing this morning.

“First let me [apologize] for any confusion that we might have created regarding the budget. Your budget has not been cut,” stated Firas Makhlouf, Capital Projects and Funding Manager for WSDOT to COAST. He went on to say that WSDOT had, “... no intention of affecting your services or agency operations.”

“We aren’t sure exactly what happened, but we were absolutely thrilled when we got the news on Saturday,” said Collins.

“We are more than grateful for some of our biggest supporters, funders and our Whitman County Commissioners who jumped right in to see how they

could help fill the gap for our clients,” she said.

COAST provides transportation services in four Washington and five Idaho counties. WSDOT funding is essential in maintaining the Washington rides for the general public to access health services, food sources, work schedules, social needs and other purposes.