SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A local program that offers free rideshare services to seniors in San Diego County is in need of more volunteers.

Jewish Family Service of San Diego’s On the Go program currently helps more than 2,000 seniors in need with transportation. Volunteers assist local seniors by driving them in their own cars to the grocery store, the doctor’s office or other essential destinations.

“As we know, the population here in San Diego is definitely trending upwards with older adults in our community. So we see a great need for folks who want to stay living independently in their homes but maybe who can no longer drive,” said Sunni Robertson, Director of Volunteer Engagement, Jewish Family Service of San Diego.

As Robertson explains, the program not only provides a critical service, but also helps combat loneliness for many older San Diegans.

“This is a really wonderful, mutually beneficial volunteer opportunity for both our older adults and our volunteers,” she said.

Robertson says volunteers are provided with mileage reimbursement. You can learn more about getting involved in the program online.

ABC 10News also spoke with Betty Carroll, a volunteer who has been driving with the program for seven years. For the last two years, she’s been helping Mark Passavanti, who is visually impaired.

“Helping Mark makes me feel good,” said Carroll. “It’s about making a good friend more than anything else.”

Carroll takes Passavanti and his service dog Luca to the grocery store and appointments weekly.

“Betty is always there on time and comes and gets me and it’s just a wonderful ride and a wonderful time,” said Passavanti. “It gives me freedom and makes me feel like a normal guy.”

Following last week’s lithium battery fire resulting in evacuation orders and warnings at a San Diego Gas & Electric battery storage facility in Escondido and the lithium-ion fire at an Otay Mesa storage complex that occurred earlier this year, the County Board of Supervisors will consider putting a pause on future such facilities.

The action in front of the supervisors on Wednesday will present several options to the board. The body can request additional fire suppression technical reports and/or include new disclosure requirements to make any new battery energy storage systems go “above and beyond” current code requirements.

Additionally, they will have the choice to put a temporary moratorium on the acceptance of new BESS applications or adopt an urgency ordinance requiring new facilities to use modular designs and follow National Fire Protection Association guidelines.

The item was already scheduled for the board but gained more urgency following the Thursday afternoon fire at the SDG&E facility. The fire was allowed to burn out by itself — per industry standard, a statement from the Escondido Fire Department read.

Just one of the site’s 24 cells caught fire.

While no one was injured by the fire, evacuation orders were issued to businesses in the largely industrial part of the city.

Another recent fire took place earlier this year by the border. Fire authorities in Otay Mesa also issued evacuation orders, as lithium-ion fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish. According to CalFire, the threat of potential poisonous vapors and explosions prompted the evacuation orders.

The moratorium the supervisors will discuss couldn’t come any sooner, some residents of Escondido say.

“Area residents are renewing their call for the county to issue a moratorium on building new lithium battery storage facilities in neighborhoods,” reads a statement from a group of citizens, including JP Theberge of the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council and Joe Rowley, a retired engineer and battery storage facility developer.

“The Escondido battery fire is unfolding in an industrial area away from homes and residences. However, it reinforces the concerns of residents that a project that is 10 times larger (the Seguro project) is being proposed, which would be surrounded by hundreds of homes and upwind from a hospital in northern San Diego County, near Escondido,” they write. “Despite the current fire being in an industrial area, hundreds of businesses were evacuated and many more were told to shelter-in-place. Schools located downwind were closed today as well.”

Should the supervisors elect the moratorium route, it could freeze the proposed AES’ Seguro storage project in Escondido, not far from where Thursday’s fire took place. This project would be capable of storing up to 320 megawatts or 1,280 megawatt hours worth of energy — several times larger than the facility where the fire continues to burn.

Without the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facilities, the county could have a difficult time meeting its climate goals.

The battery storage facilities are a component of the county’s respond to green energy, storing energy from renewable sources such as solar or wind to use as needed. They are intended as an alternative or at least a supplement to fossil fuel energies such as natural gas and oil.

Treasury yields dipped on Wednesday as investors awaited the release of U.S. inflation data for clues on the size of a potential interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was nearly 2 basis points lower at 3.627%, with the 2-year Treasury yield down 2 basis points at 3.588%.

Yields and prices move in opposite directions. One basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.

Market participants are anticipating the release of two key inflation reports this week. The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) data for August will be released on Wednesday before market open, while the U.S. producer price index (PPI) report, also for August, is scheduled for release on Thursday.

The reports come ahead of the Fed’s Sept 17-18 meeting, with traders widely expecting a rate cut. The only remaining question appears to be by how much the U.S. central bank will reduce rates.

Some economists have argued the Fed should deliver a half-point rate cut next week, accusing the central bank of having previously gone “too far, too fast” with monetary policy tightening.

Others have described such a move as one that would be “very dangerous” for markets, pushing instead for the Fed to deliver a quarter-point rate cut instead.

Traders are currently pricing in a 67% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut, with 33% expecting a 50-basis-point rate reduction, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.