The Three Community Transportation Committee of Mount Vernon, Fayette and Vienna has hired two consultants with a grant from the Maine Community Foundation.

Michael Reisman and Jo Cooper have been hired by the committee — sponsored by the Mount Vernon Community Partnership Corporation — to help it solve the problem of transportation for people who cannot drive in the three towns.

Reisman was named program director of Island Connections in 1997, and has remained involved in transportation issues even though he is no longer director. Island Connections’ major focus is to recruit and train volunteers to provide transportation for shopping, medical appointments and social events to help older people stay living independently at home.

Cooper has many years of experience in coordinating volunteers and managing a volunteer driving organization in Hancock County through Friends in Action. This organization has grown to more than 200 volunteers assisting more than 500 residents in more than 15 municipalities by matching volunteers with requests for transportation.

The committee has representatives from all three communities and will work with Reisman and Cooper to develop a strategic plan, engage local residents in public forums in each of the three towns to learn of the transportation needs of the townspeople, and prepare a first-year operations plan.

The committee plans to have a system in place in 2015. For more information, email Sandy Wright, president of the Mount Vernon Community Partnership, at scwright@fairpoint.net.