Portage County NET Transportation: PARTA, the Private Ride Vendors, and Their County Agreements

Portage County does not hand its county NET rides to one company or a broker. Portage County Job and Family Services (JFS), in Ravenna, holds a separate transportation agreement with each provider, and the Board of Commissioners approves every agreement and every raise in its cap by resolution. That means a small company can win an agreement of its own in Portage instead of driving under someone else’s.

How a Portage County NET ride gets booked

Ohio Medicaid pays each county JFS to arrange the rides no health plan has to give, under rule 5160-15-10, and each county decides how to buy them. The Ohio guide covers the plans and their brokers, and county NET contracts in Ohio compares how the counties buy rides.

A Portage rider calls the JFS NET line at 330-297-3785 or emails PORTAGE_NET@jfs.ohio.gov. PARTA’s fares page lists these NET rides as free to the rider, says every Medicaid category qualifies except the Medicare Premium Assistance Programs, and asks for ten days’ notice. Before JFS processes a request, it needs the rider’s Social Security number and the appointment: the provider’s name and type, address and phone, the reason for the visit, and the date and time.

The county’s NET brochure (form F020-17, dated January 2025) offers two kinds of help:

• Curb-to-curb rides. Requested ten days ahead, for trips within Portage and the surrounding counties. The brochure names Emerald, PARTA, and a JFS staff driver as the providers.
• Gas cards. Priced on the trip’s mileage and current gas prices, requested seven days ahead, and picked up before the appointment at the cashier’s window on the third floor of the Administration Building. Lost or stolen cards are not replaced.

Riders must cancel at least three hours before the appointment, or the trip counts as a no-show. Three no-shows within 30 days cost the rider NET service for the month after the third. The brochure tells health plan members they may get 15 round trips or 30 one-way rides from their plan and to call the number on their card; CareSource Ohio is one of those plans.

Who drove JFS rides through September 2026

Three JFS transportation agreements in the commissioners’ 2026 minutes ran through September 30, 2026. Each one ended far above its starting cap:

Provider	What it covered	Cap and term
PARTA (contract 20240341)	JFS clients to appointments; work and training trips removed for 2025 to 2026	$688,410, May 1, 2024 to September 30, 2026
AxessPointe Community Health Centers (contract 20240354)	JFS clients to appointments or to work and training sites	$612,000, May 1, 2024 to September 30, 2026
A Blessed Path, dba ReliaRide Transportation (Canton)	On-call rides that supplement the main program	$150,000, October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026

PARTA’s agreement started at $150,000 for May 2024 to April 2025. The county added $136,410 in January 2025, renewed it for another $150,000 in March 2025, and then approved three more increases and two short extensions, the last on August 6, 2026 (Resolution 26-0409). AxessPointe’s agreement followed the same path, from $180,000 in its first year to $612,000 (Resolution 26-0410).

The ReliaRide agreement came out of a separate, smaller bid. In 2025 the county sent its supplemental transportation request to 17 potential providers and opened three proposals on August 13, 2025. ReliaRide’s cap began at $30,000, was cut to $20,000, and was raised to $150,000 on January 22, 2026 (Resolution 26-0045), with an option to extend one year. It covers on-call, door-to-door trips on top of the main program: Medicaid members going to appointments for ongoing treatment, including pregnancy care, plus work, training, and child care trips for TANF, WIOA, and SNAP clients, and supportive service trips for older adults working with Adult Protective Services. A Blessed Path also holds the largest projected share, $5,573,700, of Summit County’s NET work for October 2026 to September 2027.

The 2026 bid and the five agreements on the September agenda

On May 7, 2026, the commissioners approved specifications for transportation services for JFS (Resolution 26-0261) and set proposals due at 3:00 p.m. on May 27. Eight came in. On June 4, the board rejected all eight because of incomplete information and readvertised (Resolution 26-0303), with sealed proposals due at 2:00 p.m. on June 24, 2026.

The county’s tabulation of the June 24 opening lists eight proposers: A Blessed Path dba ReliaRide, Axess Family Services, Gilcrest Center, Hope Town, It’s Doctor Time, Lineage Transport, PARTA, and Travel NET Transit. At the July 2, 2026 meeting, the JFS director told the board that NET calls ran about 700 in April and 557 in May, and that the bid had drawn more companies and organizations wanting to provide rides.

The agenda for September 3, 2026 then listed five separate JFS transportation agreements: Travel Net Transit; A Blessed Path, Inc. dba ReliaRide; PARTA; Lineage Transport LLC; and Axess Family Services. The agenda lists each one as its own resolution and gives no term or amount. Ask the commissioners’ office at 330-297-3600 for the September 3 resolutions to see what each provider can be paid and for how long.

What the Portage bid requires

The packet comes only from the Office of Internal Services: the county bids page says you must call or email the contact in the notice to get the documents. The June 5, 2026 notice says the request forms and any information about them come from the Director of Internal Services, and that sealed proposals go to that office in the Administration Building at 449 South Meridian Street in Ravenna (entrance on Chestnut) by the deadline hour, 2:00 p.m. for the June 2026 rebid. The winner must follow the equal employment requirements of Executive Orders 11246 and 11375. The commissioners keep the right to reject any or all proposals, and in June 2026 they used it.

Rule 5160-15-14 lets Portage JFS hold an agreement with a private ride company only when each driver has a valid license and a certified BMV driving record on file with JFS, each worker who serves riders has passed a criminal background check, and the company, its owners, and those workers are clear of the SAM and HHS OIG exclusion lists. The checks are repeated each time an agreement is signed or renewed, and the driver background check guide shows what they cover. PARTA is outside the rule, because it leaves out transit authorities.

Steps to bid the next Portage County round

1. Ask to receive the notice. The county sent its 2025 supplemental request to 17 potential providers. Call the Office of Internal Services at 330-235-7119 and ask to be sent JFS transportation requests.
2. Check the bids page every week. The 2026 bid ran May 8 to May 27, and the rebid June 5 to June 24, under three weeks each. The page posts each notice and, after opening, the list of proposers.
3. Answer every item in the packet. The county threw out all eight May 2026 proposals as incomplete, so check yours against the specifications line by line before you seal it.
4. Build your vendor file first. Have driver licenses, certified BMV records, background checks, SAM and exclusion searches, insurance certificates, and a vehicle list ready, so the checks can start the day you are picked.
5. Read the current agreements. Request the September 3, 2026 resolutions and Resolutions 26-0409 and 26-0410 as public records. They show each cap, how long it runs, and how often the county raised it.
6. Ask about work in between. Until the next round, ask the five agreement holders whether they use other companies, and read running trips as a subcontractor before you sign anything.