Mahoning County NET Transportation: The JFS Ride Agreements, Two Rates, and the RFP Paperwork (2027)

Mahoning County Job and Family Services (MCDJFS) buys its county NET rides from private ride companies, under contracts with the Board of Mahoning County Commissioners in Youngstown. The last request for proposals (RFP), from August 2024, let each company price two kinds of service and pays only for miles with a rider on board. Here is who holds the work now, how that RFP priced rides, and what it asked you to file.

Who arranges NET rides in Mahoning County

Every Ohio county’s job and family services office runs a NET program under rule 5160-15-10, and the Medicaid health plans carry wheelchair van rides and longer trips for their members. The Ohio guide explains that split, and county NET contracts in Ohio compares how other counties buy rides.

MCDJFS works out of Oak Hill Renaissance Place, 345 Oakhill Avenue, Entrance D, in Youngstown, open weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its NET line is 330-884-6934. The county names dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation, and routine doctor visits as NET trips, as long as the trip is not an emergency and goes to a Medicaid provider. The 2024 RFP says MCDJFS must serve riders who live anywhere in the county, outlying places such as Sebring and Lake Milton included, and pays a company only for services MCDJFS authorizes.

Rule 5160-15-10 lets a county decline a NET ride when suitable transportation is free to the public. As of October 2026, every Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA) bus is fare-free. WRTA’s Countywide service gives shared rides inside Mahoning County, in areas its buses do not reach, weekdays 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Riders book it 7 days to 24 hours ahead, and it never crosses the county line.

Who holds Mahoning County NET agreements

In 2024 the commissioners’ agenda carried two legal notices for transportation RFPs: one on May 31, for service from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, and another on August 1, the week before the August RFP opened. The September 5, 2024 agenda then listed agreements with eight companies, plus an amendment extending an earlier Mirkin & Associates agreement to September 30, 2024 at no change in its $140,000 estimate. Two more agreements came later: JoDell’s Transportation on September 12 and Loving Hands Homecare on December 19, 2024, priced per unit.

The next round went to the same group. The July 10, 2025 agenda listed new agreements with all ten companies, and the June 25, 2026 agenda carried Amendment 2 to extend the end date for nine of them. Garwin is the one company missing from the June 2026 list. The figures below are the estimated amounts each agenda gives for each agreement.

Company	September 2024	July 2025
Independent Radio Taxi	$300,000	$55,000
Evergreen Healthcare Services	$160,000	$30,000
Inner City Transit	$125,000	$20,000
CES Group (3 Kings Transportation)	$75,000	$17,000
Garwin	$47,500	$7,500
Mirkin & Associates (Comfort Care-A-Van)	$42,000	$14,000
A Blessed Path (ReliaRide)	$25,000	$15,000
Angel Carriers	$19,000	$4,500
JoDell’s Transportation	$10,000	$2,500
Loving Hands Homecare	Per unit, December 2024	$4,000

The agendas do not give the new end date or any company’s rate. To see both, ask MCDJFS for the signed agreements as public records under section 149.43 of the Revised Code.

How the Mahoning RFP priced rides

Section 3.2 of the August 2024 RFP asks for two rates, and a company may be contracted for either one alone or for both:

• A private transportation vendor (PTV) rate. PTV is the state’s term in rule 5160-15-14 for a private company under contract with a county.
• A wheelchair van rate, for what the RFP calls an eligible provider: a wheelchair van company. The Ohio guide covers the license and Medicaid enrollment a wheelchair van needs.

Both rates are paid on loaded mileage, which rule 5160-15-01 defines as the distance traveled to or from a Medicaid service with the rider in the vehicle. Empty miles to a pickup earn nothing, and the RFP tells you to build every operating cost into the rate. See loaded miles and deadhead miles.

How payment works:

• Unit cost. You are paid per unit at the agreed rate, only for services MCDJFS authorizes.
• Monthly invoices. Each is due by the fifth business day after the month it covers.
• 45 days. MCDJFS pays within 45 days of receiving the invoice and any required documents.
• 120-day prices. Your response and its pricing must stay in effect for at least 120 days after you submit.
• More money midyear. If more funding arrives during the term, MCDJFS may amend a contract to raise its value. If funding disappears during the RFP, the process is canceled.

A complete response is rated “Qualified”, and as long as it meets the service rules in Section 4.2 and you can do the work at the cost you propose, MCDJFS moves forward to a contract. MCDJFS also keeps the right to award several contracts for the same service, and the 2024 round ended with ten. Work out your cost per loaded mile with the cost per trip guide before you name a rate.

What the Mahoning RFP asks you to file

Mail or bring one signed original and one full copy to MCDJFS at 345 Oak Hill Avenue, P.O. Box 600, Youngstown 44501-0600. Faxed, telephoned, and telegraphed responses are refused. If you mail, use certified or registered mail, UPS, or FedEx with a return receipt. An unsigned response is rejected, and every response becomes public, so mark each trade secret page “PROPRIETARY” in its upper right corner.

Questions go by email to the MCDJFS contact the RFP names, and the answers go to everyone who asked. Staff may not talk with a single bidder about the RFP between its release and the deadline. The response follows five numbered sections:

1. Cover sheet, signed by someone who can bind the company, with the names of the people allowed to negotiate.
2. Executive summary: your headquarters or local office in the Tri-County area, your main line of business, start date, years of experience, and staff count, and how you are owned and financed, with your EIN. Each owner or manager discloses every related business, with its name, addresses, tax ID, and any Medicaid provider number and NPI. Add a history showing you have run demand-response service, a table of organization, your articles of incorporation, a current insurance certificate, a vehicle list with make, model, year, color, and VIN, and any planned subcontracts.
3. Scope of service, describing what you will provide, your competitive advantage, and the vehicles you will use.
4. References, at least two from organizations that contracted with you for similar work, never from individuals, each with the company’s address, phone and fax, contact person, services, and contract period. If you have none, the RFP asks you to explain why.
5. Personnel, for each owner, manager, and direct-service employee or applicant: name, role, certifications, work history, a copy of the driver’s license, and BCII and FBI checks or the paid receipt for them.

You must also disclose any pending or threatened lawsuit or claim against the company, its parent, or its subsidiaries. A planned subcontractor needs MCDJFS approval in advance and a letter of intent naming its services and three references, and a copy of your signed agreement with it goes into the final contract. See how to answer a NEMT RFP.

Insurance

A company selected for a contract must carry:

• Workers’ compensation.
• Auto insurance of $1,000,000 per claim.
• Commercial general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 for all occurrences, from an insurer licensed in Ohio.

Every policy names MCDJFS and the Board of Mahoning County Commissioners as additional insureds, and the current certificates go with both copies of the response. See NEMT insurance requirements.

Sworn forms

The appendix holds the forms you sign, most of them before a notary:

• Assurances (Appendix I), the service promises listed in the next section.
• Personal property tax affidavit under section 5719.042, swearing you owed no delinquent personal property tax in Mahoning County when you bid. If you did, a copy goes to the county treasurer within 30 days, and no payment is made until the statement is part of the contract.
• Campaign contribution affidavit under section 3517.13. For a contract over $10,000 in a calendar year, you swear that you, your partners, any owner of more than 20%, and their spouses and children aged 7 to 17 give no commissioner more than $1,000 each, or $2,000 together, from the award until a year after the contract ends.
• Debarment affidavit, covering federal debarment, the Secretary of State’s unfair labor practice list, and findings for recovery under section 9.24, which MCDJFS checks on the state’s website.
• Declaration regarding material assistance to a terrorist organization, on Ohio Homeland Security form HLS 0038.

Before a contract is signed, MCDJFS also runs its own contractor certification in three parts: basic identifying information, financial and administrative information, and quality assurance.

What a Mahoning County contract asks of you

Section 4.2 and Appendix I of the 2024 RFP set the service you sign up for:

• A demand-response service, preferably around the clock, seven days a week, federal holidays included.
• An on-time standard written as “at least ninety percent (95%)” of riders reaching their destination within the time standard. Plan for 95% and ask in writing which number applies.
• Staff to handle MCDJFS dispatch requests, administrative staff for reports and monthly invoicing, and an ombudsman who resolves complaints quickly.
• Late-model vehicles in good mechanical order and free of rust and dents, backup vehicles, a regular maintenance program, a daily safety inspection, and two-way communication with every vehicle.
• Safety restraints, and driver training, for infants, children, and teens.
• Drivers trained in passenger assistance, CPR, defensive driving, first aid, and bloodborne pathogens, who follow a dress code and display photo ID at all times.
• Criminal background reports, BMV reports, and alcohol and drug screens on every driver at least once a year, or whenever MCDJFS asks.
• Rider rules against smoking, eating, drinking, profanity, and threats.
• Notice to MCDJFS when you hire new staff, and within 24 hours of any accident or incident on an MCDJFS trip.

The state’s vendor screening in rule 5160-15-14 comes on top of these at each contract start or renewal: a valid license and certified BMV record for every driver, a section 109.572 background check on every direct-service employee, and searches of the SAM and HHS OIG exclusion lists. See NEMT driver background checks.

How to get Mahoning County NET work

1. Call the NET unit at 330-884-6934. Ask whether MCDJFS is adding companies now and when the agreements extended in June 2026 end.
2. Watch the commissioners’ agenda. Both 2024 RFP notices appeared there, and the county’s Agenda Center has a Notify Me sign-up for new agendas. Regular meetings are usually Thursdays at 10 a.m.
3. Build your file before the notice. Have your articles, insurance certificates naming MCDJFS and the commissioners, a vehicle list with VINs, two business references, and BCII and FBI checks for each driver ready, since the August 2024 RFP was open for nine days.
4. Price both rates if you run wheelchair vans, each on loaded miles alone.
5. Look next door. Trumbull County buys its ambulatory Medicaid rides through its own bid each August, and the health plans’ ride brokers send wheelchair van trips statewide, as the Ohio guide explains.