LANSING | As soon as a Pace van becomes available, residents here will be able to use a shuttle service replacing the village's senior citizen bus service.

Lansing trustees last week accepted Village President Dan Podgorski's proposal to lease a 10-person van without wheelchair access for $270 a month until a larger van with wheelchair access becomes available.

The Village Board voted 6-0 to authorize Podgorski to launch the municipal van program with Pace suburban bus service.

"We're pleased that we're going to be able to extend service for Lansing residents," Podgorski said.

Pace likely will not make the first van available for several months, but the village is now in line to get one, Podgorski said.

"It will probably be a few months before we execute the agreement," he said. "I don't know how quickly they will have a vehicle for us. We just wanted to get the process started now."

Lansing officials visited the Pace bus yard earlier this month to view their options.

Pace currently offers a six-passenger van with a wheelchair lift, a 10-passenger van without a lift and a 12-passenger van without a lift, Podgorski said. A Pace official recommended Lansing lease the 10-passenger van and wait until a "turtle top" van that serves 10 to 12 passengers with a lift becomes available, he said.

"My impression was that it would become available within the next year," Podgorski said. "It would be the best of both worlds. It can take several passengers and people with wheelchairs."

Lansing's current shuttle service, provided by Kickert bus lines of Lynnwood, is available only to senior citizens and does not provide wheelchair access, he said.

The Pace van will pick up any resident (disabled or able-bodied) who lives within three-quarters of a mile of Pace bus route 358 and take them anywhere on that route, Podgorski said.

Lansing currently pays Kickert about $20,000 to $22,000 a year for the senior bus service, available to up to eight passengers two days a week for up to five hours each day, he said.

The Pace bus service would cost the village about $15,000 to $18,000 a year, including gas and maintenance, but would double service to 20 hours a week, Podgorski said.

"And it would be able to take anybody around," he said. "From a service standpoint, it's going to be able to improve service. From a cost standpoint, we're going to have savings. It's as least as good as what we're doing now, if not a heck of a lot better."