The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Local route buses or Dial-a-Ride offer free rides to vaccinations
Laketran is providing free, accessible transportation to any Lake County resident to a novel coronavirus vaccination appointment.
According to the transit agency, residents can use local route buses or door-to-door Dial-a-Ride service.
For Laketran’s Dial-a-Ride service, customers must schedule a reservation by calling 440-3546100.
Laketran recommends making a reservation for Dial-a-Ride as soon as a vaccine appointment
has been confirmed.
Reservations for Dial-aRide can be made a minimum of one day in advance and up to 12 days prior to an appointment.
If a vaccination appointment is at a drive-thru site, Laketran customers will remain on the same bus for the entire trip. Laketran stated it will transport residents through the entire vaccine process and return them home safely.
Kirtland resident Jean Harvey received her first vaccination Feb. 5 at the Coulby Park distribution site in Wickliffe using the public transportation system, and she said the whole process went very smoothly.
“My bus was on time, the line wasn’t very long and I didn’t even have to get off the bus — I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Harvey said. “I usually ride Laketran about twice a week. During the pandemic, I have continued to ride when necessary, like doctor’s appointments or shopping, and have always felt safe.”
Residents who prefer to take Laketran’s Local Routes 1-9 can call Laketran Customer Service at 440-354-6100 and request that four bus passes be added to their EZfare account. The passes can also be mailed.
“We are here to help in any way we can to get our community through this pandemic and move forward,” said Laketran CEO Ben Capelle. “We’ve responded with our mobile food pantry bus and now we want to make sure every resident has the opportunity
to get vaccinated.”
To date, Laketran has provided transportation to about 25 people, primarily senior citizens and veterans.
In addition to community distribution sites, trips have included visits to doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.
A court in Warsaw ruled Tuesday that two prominent Holocaust researchers must apologize to a woman who claimed her deceased uncle had been slandered in a historical work, citing alleged inaccuracies that suggested the Polish man helped kill Jews during World War II.
Lawyers for 81-year-old Filomena Leszczynska argued that the scholars had unfairly harmed her good name and that of her family, violating the honor of the uncle. The family says he saved Jews during the German occupation of Poland during World War II.
The District Court in Warsaw did not, however, rule that they should be forced to pay her 100,000 zlotys ($27,000), as her lawyers had demanded.
The case has been closely watched because it was expected to set a precedent in the field of Holocaust research. The ruling was not final, and Barbara Engelking, the author of the passage in question, said her side planned to appeal.
The plaintiffs say Polish national pride is at stake