LAURINBURG — The SCATS program will be getting a new full-time position in the near future.

During Monday night’s Scotland County Board of Commissioners meeting, the board unanimously voted to create the position at the request of Scotland County Department of Social Services Director April Snead.

“I came … to request a new position for SCATS, our transportation system for the county,” Snead said. “Over the last year and a half we’ve really worked to grow the SCATS program, which has had its own challenges because of COVID … since October we have denied 108 trips for the simple reason that we don’t have the staff to keep the buses on the road.

“We have the buses in the parking lot, we don’t have the drivers and positions to drive the buses anymore,” she added.

Snead added there are both full-time and part-time drivers, plus the county receives money back if SCATS is taking people to work or employment-related places and when the buses take a Medicaid client to a service it is 100% reimbursed.

“I feel very strongly about this,” Snead said. “A SCATS position doesn’t cost the county $42,000 that’s what’s tied up in the positional and benefits. We get pretty good reimbursement on SCATS positions.”

The SCATS buses not only take residents of the community to various places in the county but it also takes those who have medical appointments to Moore County, Fayetteville, Chapel Hill and Durham. Snead explained that if there are only a few riders SCATS can use a minivan to drive them as long as they aren’t in a wheelchair but those trips are done on certain days of the month so that multiple people can be taken at one time.

Commissioner Betty Blue Gholston asked if the new position would include getting a SCAT bus to Wagram, which it would.

“Last year about this time you approved a new fixed deviated line meaning the line that runs around town so how you think of a true transportation system,” Snead said. “You approved that line which included Laurel Hill, Wagram and Gibson and we haven’t been able to start that line. We’re kind of in this quasi-place of starting it but we can’t run it full force and we haven’t been able to get out to those communities. This will really help that.”

Commissioner Carol McCall asked if there might be an issue finding drivers for the buses right now due to the qualifications.

“We have had that problem over the last six months and most recently we have now filled out positions,” Snead said. “We were only able to recruit for part-time and we’ve had people who have come in saying they really need full-time work … so being that we could only advertise for part-time work that might have been the issue with finding drivers because we’ve had people say that. But it is a challenge they are required to have a CDL of a certain class.”

The motion was approved and the board recognized the SCATS drivers who had come to the meeting to show support of the new position.

Reach Katelin Gandee at [email protected].