Three bus shelters not up yet
By Barbara Arntsen
Published in News on July 28, 2005 1:48 PM
It's taken a longer than expected, but the remaining three bus shelters planned for stops along the Gateway route will soon be erected, said a Gateway official Wednesday.
Stephen Wright, executive director of the Goldsboro Wayne Transportation Authority, said eight of the 11 shelters the system has planned for have already been put up at stops around the city.
The one on Berkeley Boulevard will go up within the next two weeks, he said, and the other two, on Lionel Street and at the Eastpointe Mental Health Center downtown, will also go up within the next month.
"We had to do some changing on some of the shelters because the original space designated wasn't big enough, so we had to get more room," Wright said.
The first shelter was erected on Simmons Street in April. The other shelters are at Courtyard Apartments and at Seymour Homes, Westhaven, Fairview, Lincoln Homes, Woodcrest and Elmwood Terrace public housing units.
The shelter at Seymour Homes will be moved soon, Wright said, because of constant vandalism.
Forty-eight hours after that shelter went up, one of the window panes was broken.
Gateway replaced the pane, which was tempered safety glass, with Plexiglas.
Within another two weeks, another pane was broken, and subsequently replaced.
Gateway had enough after the third time.
"That one is coming out," Wright said. "And we'll be moving it to another housing area for senior citizens on Alabama Avenue."
He said that folks seemed to be enjoying the bus shelters, and there are plans to erect more.
Gateway will be getting newer, and bigger, buses, so some of the routes will change, he said.
"Then we'll see where we need to put additional shelters," he said.
The 11 shelters cost about $60,000, including installation. Eighty percent of the cost was covered by a grant, 10 percent was covered by the state, and the city paid for the rest.
"We'll be applying for some more grant money for shelters this year," he said.