Columbiana County NET Transportation: The CARTS Contract, the Bid Calendar, and the Wheelchair Ride Gap

Columbiana County Job and Family Services (CCDJFS) in Lisbon runs the county’s NET program, and one carrier drives it: CARTS, the Community Action Rural Transit System, run by the Community Action Agency of Columbiana County. The agency posts its contract list and its request for proposals (RFP) calendar online, and the county commissioners approve each year’s CARTS contract and its dollar ceiling.

Who runs NET in Columbiana County

Every Ohio county’s job and family services office runs NET for Medicaid members under rule 5160-15-10, while the Medicaid health plans arrange wheelchair van and ambulance rides, longer trips, and a yearly allowance of short trips through their own brokers. The Ohio guide explains that split and the licenses, and county NET contracts in Ohio compares how other counties buy rides.

CCDJFS works from 7989 Dickey Drive, Suite 2, in Lisbon, and its main line is 330-424-1471. Its 2024 annual report counted 27,165 county residents on Medicaid each month. Its NET page names two kinds of help for Ohio Medicaid members with no other way to get to a covered service, such as a doctor, hospital, dentist, or counseling visit:

• A ride from a contracted vendor. Riders call CARTS at 330-424-1637, or ask in person or in writing.
• Gas cards for a member who has a car, requested through the agency’s NET worker at 330-420-6531. The current contract list also names Smith Oil for gasoline vouchers.

The NET worker makes the final call on who qualifies. A request needs the member’s Medicaid case number or Social Security number and the doctor’s name, address, and phone. New applicants should give 10 days’ notice, and JFS recommends 4 days’ notice and booking no more than two months ahead. Riders who need a lift van must say so when they book, and a ride canceled less than two hours before pickup, or skipped, counts as a no-show.

The CARTS contract

The commissioners approve JFS ride contracts at their Wednesday sessions in the Lisbon courthouse, and the minutes show the same arrangement three years running:

• June 12, 2024: CARTS for “NET / Pre-Natal Transportation,” July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, ceiling $1,000,000.
• May 28, 2025: the same service, July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, ceiling $1,000,000, plus a $50,000 contract for SNAP Employment and Training rides.
• June 10, 2026: the same pair again, July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, at $1,000,000 for NET and $50,000 for SNAP rides.

The ceiling is the most the county can pay under the contract in a year, not a promise of that much work. The agency’s annual reports put NET spending at $815,534.38 in 2023, when it counted 3,082 NET recipients, and $982,022.25 in 2024. The current contract list also gives CARTS the county’s Ohio Works First job commute rides.

CARTS is the county’s public transit system, not a private livery company. On October 30, 2024 the commissioners adopted Resolution 59-2024, recommending to the Ohio Department of Transportation that the Community Action Agency stay the grantee for the county’s rural transit capital and operating money from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2029. The CARTS fleet is 100 percent wheelchair accessible, it runs Monday through Saturday from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., and general riders book at least 24 hours ahead at 330-424-4015. Every CARTS trip must start or end in Columbiana County, though it drives into Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Jefferson, Trumbull, and other counties as needed.

As a public transportation system, CARTS falls outside the state’s private vendor screening rule, 5160-15-14. A private company that wins county NET work would go through that screening at each contract start and renewal, covering driver licenses, certified driving records, criminal background checks, and federal exclusion list searches; the county NET contracts guide walks through the packet.

To read the contract’s rates and terms, ask CCDJFS for the signed CARTS agreement and the last NET RFP as public records. Section 149.43 of the Revised Code requires a public office to make records available promptly, with copies at cost, and does not let it condition a request on who you are or why you want them.

When Columbiana County bids NET

The JFS RFP page sets out the rules:

• $50,000 and up. The agency writes an RFP for any service costing $50,000 or more, and posts it on that page.
• Two-year cycle. It says the agency runs on the federal fiscal year, October through September, awards most contracts for two years, and so releases most RFPs every other year.
• NET’s slot. The posted schedule lists NET for April 2015 and every other year after, which puts the next date on that cycle in April 2027. The page adds that other RFPs may come out as needed.

The CARTS contracts in the minutes run July to June, one year at a time, so the calendar and the contracts do not line up neatly. As of October 2, 2026, the RFP page lists no current RFPs and no sealed bids. The page asks anyone who wants RFP notices to email the procurement contact it names, or call 330-420-6674, and it sends notices by email unless you ask otherwise.

Where riders still need more rides

The Community Action Agency’s coordinated transit plan for the county, updated and sent to the Ohio Department of Transportation in November 2025, drew on surveys and interviews with 27 organizations. They listed 133 vehicles, about 72 percent of them wheelchair accessible. Eight providers ran fleets that were 99 percent or more accessible, but five of those eight had only one or two vehicles, and the plan says all but one of them are private providers with closed systems that serve only their own clients. It names CARTS as the only major provider of wheelchair accessible rides in the county and reports a growing need for wheelchair transportation with too few providers and vehicles.

The plan’s goals name where service falls short:

• Long medical trips. Better service to medical centers more than 40 miles away, naming Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Akron, Beaver, and Weirton, and coordinated medical routes to Beaver, Boardman, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
• Longer hours. Countywide public service from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, longer Saturday hours, and a Sunday service.
• Across state lines. Rides into the Pennsylvania and West Virginia counties next door, and outreach to Jefferson, Belmont, Mahoning, and Trumbull counties about shared needs and routes.

CARTS fares, in effect since January 6, 2025, are what a rider pays when no program covers the trip, from $2.00 in town to $30.00 for 40 to 60 miles out of the county:

Trip, one way	CARTS fare
In town, booked ahead	$2.00
Community to community	$3.00
Connex shuttle	$1.00
Out of county, up to 25 miles	$10.00
Out of county, 25 to 40 miles	$20.00
Out of county, over 40 to 60 miles	$30.00
Out of county, over 60 miles	$0.50 a mile

For Medicaid plan members, wheelchair van rides go through the plans’ brokers, not the county, so a licensed wheelchair van company can work here without the county contract. See choosing a wheelchair van for NEMT before you buy.

Free driver training through the mobility manager

The Community Action Agency’s mobility manager works for riders, not for any one carrier, and offers free safety courses to drivers of any transportation provider in Columbiana County. The DRIVE course is offered now. CPR, first aid, and AED, bloodborne and airborne pathogen, and defensive driving courses through the National Safety Council are listed as coming soon, and the defensive driving and CPR courses carry a $10 workbook and certificate fee per person.

The mobility manager also posts a list of the county’s current transportation providers with their contact information, and asks companies to report changes and additions. Call 330-870-4345, or visit the office at 632 East Lincoln Way in Lisbon, generally open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.

How to get ride work in Columbiana County

1. Get on the RFP list. Email or call the JFS procurement contact at 330-420-6674 and ask when NET will next go out for proposals.
2. Read the current deal. Request the CARTS NET agreement and the last NET RFP under section 149.43, so you know the rates and terms before a bid opens.
3. Join the plan brokers. License and enroll your wheelchair vans as the Ohio guide explains, then apply to each Medicaid plan’s broker, where the county’s wheelchair rides for plan members are arranged.
4. List your company with the mobility manager at 330-870-4345, and send your drivers to the free DRIVE course.
5. Look next door. Mahoning County JFS, to the north, had NET agreements with ten private companies in July 2025, and Stark County, to the west, splits its NET trips among five van vendors.