There’s a new bus stop located in front of the apartments at 100 Miller Park Ave. in Bradford.
The new stop was celebrated on Monday morning with Mayor Rob Keffer, Coun. Peter Dykie Jr., BWG’s Transit Technologist, Paul Dubniak, Program Coordinator for CHATS-Community & Home Assistance to Seniors, Linda Ind and CHATS Chief Executive Officer, Christina Bisanz, along with some of the seniors who live in the apartments.
The residents of the apartment buildings, who are mostly seniors, utilize the bus service quite frequently and were very happy to see the new structure outside their front door.
Ind said she had asked Bisanz to write a letter to council a few months back requesting for a bus shelter in front of the apartments, where many of their clients live, after driving by and seeing many of them standing out in poor weather conditions waiting for the bus.
Dubniak said that it is typically up to the third party advertising agency as to where shelters are placed, as they prefer locations with heavy vehicular traffic. But this one was a combination of their input as well as a request from CHATS and the seniors living at 100 Miller Park Ave.
“Ultimately it has a lot to do with Creative Outdoor (advertising agency) and where they can see traffic,” he said of the decision making process for the location of the shelters.
One of the residents who lives in the apartments, Corrine Williams said she is happy to have the new shelter finally in place.
“A lot of seniors use this (bus stop),” she said.
“We usually have to wait inside, and sometimes we miss it (the bus) because we are a little slow,” she laughed.
She was grateful for CHATS and all the effort they put in toward getting the shelter.
Sue Ford has lived in the apartments since 2010, she uses CHATS services quite frequently, and said she will be using the new shelter more often in the near future.
After being in the hospital for the past year and a half and using a wheelchair and walker, she said she is hoping to be well enough soon to use more of the transit buses to get out and participate in the CHATS weekly wellness program.
“I will eventually be using this more, because the bus has a ramp that I can get up on with my wheelchair,” she said.
“I’ve been fighting for this (stop) because I am going to be using it (the shelter) too.”
The shelters which are around 5x10 in size, are paid for entirely by a third party advertising agency, which includes the structure and its maintenance for around $12,000. It is only the concrete padding underneath that the town pays for, which costs around $2,600.
Duniak said each shelter generates $50 in revenue for the town per year, while their benches bring in about $300 a year.
He said the third party agency specializes in small town advertising and have been quite successful so far with the Bradford market.
This is the 11th bus shelter that has been installed in Bradford since 2014, and there are currently 20 benches in town that were just installed last year. This year, the town plans to install 11 more benches, and they have already sold out in advertising space.
