The hydraulic wheeze of a bus fleet for St. Tammany’s new urban bussing service will likely hit the road Sept. 1, with vouchers offered to the poor and the addition of last minute pickups added in case of emergencies, Bill Oiler, St. Tammany Parish’s chief administrative officer, said Thursday evening.

The system, funded for three years with a $6 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, is a “demand-response” system, meaning a 24- to 48-hour advance notice is needed for calls for pickups, Oiler told a handful of residents at a public hearing on the new service Thursday. A one-way fee of $1.50 is required.

There are no set routes, Oiler said, but he hopes in time to add set routes for the service in the Covington, Mandeville and Slidell areas. “It’s been my experience with services like this you don’t know where the people are that need the service,” Oiler said, adding later, “ultimately it will become some sort of a route because we’ll be generally serving the same folks all the time.”

“There are few places in the country that do it this way starting out,” he said.

But with the one-time, $6 million grant, parish officials were forced to move fast, finding money along the way to continue the service when the three-year funding source dissolves.

“This won’t be one big pot. It will be a lot of small pots,” such as businesses paying the parish to take over routes they offer for employees, Oiler said of the funding source.

That business commuter part of the plan will operate 365 days a year, while the municipal service will exclude Sundays and holidays and operate 310 days a year.

The plan calls for eight vehicles that include handicap accessible entrances and hold 25 passengers each to run 10 to 16 hours a day. A contracting bid should be let soon with the contractor responsible for insurance, vehicle maintenance and more.

Once St. Tammany Parish Council approves a contract, the service is slated to serve those in urban areas.

Those areas could change with a surge in population likely to be uncovered with the 2010 census, he said.

For now, that urban designation means most residents of Abita Springs, Madisonville, Lacombe and Folsom areas must use a similar bussing service already established for rural areas by the Council on Aging St. Tammany.

That system uses its own 10- to 12-bus fleet, also on a demand-response system.

But those living on the borderlines of the urban areas “will just have to cross the street to call” for the new urban services, Oiler said.

In time the service will stretch from Slidell to Mandeville and in some instances stretch from rural areas to urban areas, Oiler said.

“I can’t tell you how many families we have who rely on Medicaid transportation and it doesn’t show up,” said Liz Gary, a community outreach specialist for Northshore Families Helping Families, a nonprofit dedicated to helping those with disabilities. “This is critical.”

Families served by NFHF and other similar organizations may also see a break in costs, with federal requirements slashing the $1.50 fee to 75 cents, Oiler said.

He also proposed a voucher system that would reduce, if not make free, the fee for those in need.

It’s those residents who will likely be made exempt from the advance notice requirement. An electronic device, about the size of a cell phone, will update bus drivers on last minute additions and cancellations, Oiler said, enabling bus drivers to pick up last minute travelers during emergencies.

Oiler admitted, however, there will be glitches at first.

“The first year is going to be rough because I’m the only one with transportation experience on my staff,” Oiler said. “But the interest is there. It’s just a matter of making it work the way we want it to work.”