By Chet Williamson

Two weeks ago Worcester Regional Transit Authority officials stood in front of an anxious and angry gathering at a Marlboro City Council meeting where they were accused of using "scare tactics" aimed at the town's elderly.

Facing budgetary deficits, WRTA made a decision to pull its funding of the Assabet Valley Council on Aging, the area's senior citizen bus service provider.

Prior to the announcement, the town of Marlboro had decided not to renew its contract with WRTA, choosing instead to go with the year-old MetroWest Regional Transit Authority.

At the meeting, City Councilor Arthur Vigeant went so far as to say that because the WRTA was "hemorrhaging loses," they were telling seniors not to go with MWRTA and threatening to leave town.

All parties involved met a week later and WRTA Administrator Stephen O'Neil, assured the town of Marlboro and its residents that the Assabet bus service will honor its contract, but admitted, "Come July 1, we won't be funding them any longer.

"They provide para-transit service for the towns of West Boylston, Northboro, Westboro, Southboro and Marlboro. It just came down to a budget decision. We had more than $1 million worth of reductions that we had to make. AVCOA was costing us more than $500,000 a year."

O'Neil adds, "When the case of AVCOA came up, WRTA was waiting early in the fiscal year to see what Marlboro was going to do. They kind of gave us the signal a few months ago that they were definitely headed toward MetroWest."

Karen Kisty, spokesperson for transportation issues in the Marlboro mayor's office, says, "We were very up front with the WRTA. We had begun meeting more than a year ago to explore the possibility of going to the MetroWest RTA. In the beginning of our discussions, there had been talk of doing an inter-agency agreement between the MetroWest RTA and the Worcester RTA for the purpose of preserving AVCOA as a provider to our elder population."

What Marlboro didn't know was there had been a business decision made by the WRTA to no longer fund Assabet.

After the follow-up meeting with WRTA, Councilor Vigeant said, "They assured us that they did have a contract through June 30 and expected AVCOA to follow through. If in fact, if there are any issues, O'Neil assured us the he would put something else in place to get us through."

Last week, the Worcester legislative delegation announced that it had secured more than $6 million in a supplemental bill to help erase the debt incurred this year by the WRTA.

But O'Neil says the money couldn't have mitigated the Marlboro situation even if it arrived earlier. "No, we are funded in arrears. That $6 million is going to be used for 2007 service. That money goes to pay that deficit."

Although WRTA is pulling the plug on Assabet Valley and service to Marlboro and Southboro, which is also expected to go with MWRTA, O'Neil says, they will still provide service to Westboro, Northboro and West Boylston through another brokered transportation service. o