Diana Rhoades, left, a client at Cottonwood Inc., is escorted by Jimmy Parente, driver of a T-Lift paratransit service bus, as Rhoades heads to work Tuesday. Rhodes is one of 82 people served by Cottonwood who depend on the T service to get to and from work.

Those light-blue signs sprouting in yards in Lawrence – Vote YES Transit! 2 & 3 – feature a drawing of a full-sized bus to get their point across, but folks from Cottonwood Industries are focusing their attention on the T system’s smaller, airport shuttle-sized vehicles as the Nov. 4 election approaches.

That’s because more than 40 percent of the 200 people who participate in Cottonwood’s JobLink program – a program that places people with disabilities and others with barriers to employment in jobs throughout Lawrence – get to and from work each day using the T’s paratransit service.

Without a fundamental sales tax winning approval from voters, the T’s overall days would be numbered. The bus system would cease operations Jan. 1, and the paratransit system of door-to-door van service also would be destined to shut down or face sharply curtailed offerings.

“Loss of paratransit would be devastating for the people we serve,” said Phil Bentzinger, director of JobLink at Cottonwood. “They depend on it in many ways, not just for employment. :

“I understanding people saying, ‘Uh, these buses are empty.’ That is a concern, and maybe we need to be looking at smaller (fixed-route) buses. But right now we’re faced with an all-or-nothing vote.”

When it comes to providing service, the system’s large buses – the ones that run on fixed routes, and are the most visible on Lawrence streets – are considered the most economical, on a cost-per-ride basis. Rides on the buses end up costing the system $5.38 per passenger; fares range from $1 per ride to as little as nothing, depending on a rider’s age or physical or economic status.

The paratransit service, known as the T Lift, accommodates people who qualify for door-to-door rides, which are scheduled in advance. Paratransit rides cost the system nearly $21 per passenger; fares are $2 for each trip or $68 for a monthly pass.

The city has $580,000 in its reserve fund for transit, City Manager David Corliss said last week. That money could be used to finance the paratransit system’s operations for 2009 – but only with two or three of the system’s vehicles to be operational, instead of the current 11 to 13.

Bentzinger looks at it another way: Applying the reserve funds to current ridership levels and expenses, the city could keep the existing system running for 100 days.

Such abbreviated service, he said, would cause problems for the 82 Cottonwood clients who use the T Lift to get to 91 different jobs in Lawrence.

“It’s more than $750,000 in annual taxable income that these people represent, and that’s gone,” Bentzinger said, of the expected repercussions from losing paratransit. “These are people who don’t drive, and their income levels are such that $10 cab rides would be difficult.”

Hans Eric Summers, who works at Cottonwood, knows the story all too well. He’s been working on contracts at Cottonwood for about five years now and uses the T Lift to get to and from Cottonwood’s center at 2801 W. 31st St.

He hasn’t voted in previous elections, but is considering doing so this time around, with so much at stake.

Ask Summers how he’d get to work if the T Lift were gone, and his answer falls into the undecided category.

“I don’t know,” he said simply, echoing the thought of others who gain employment through Cottonwood.