Sherman Towers Tenant Association Secretary, Sandra Greenwood stands in the lobby area of city hall. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Seniors' transit

Seniors ‘disappointed’ they will not get bus shelter

Oct 30, 2019 | 5:53 PM

Seniors living in Sherman Towers on First Ave. E. have lost their bid to have a shelter moved to the bus stop in front of their building.

A bench was recently put in at the location. But when the tenant association heard the city was moving a bus shelter because of very low use at its current site, they decided to ask council to have it installed in front of their building.

“The wind comes right off the river, it’s very very cold,” association secretary Sandra Greenwood told paNOW after the meeting.

“I have a hard time standing out there, well now I can sit, but it’s still very very cold.”

During a week where wind chills have been well into the minus teens, it’s been difficult for her to leave her apartment.

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“Today was a very cold day and I was planning on going out but I didn’t want to sit out there in the cold so I didn’t go,” she said.

Greenwood had previously written on behalf of the tenant association to ask for a bench, as opposed to a shelter because residents thought a shelter would quickly be vandalised. But on Monday night she told council the association now believed that with the Prince Albert Police Service set to move into the old Conexus Building on 10th St. E., the shelter would be less likely to be damaged.

Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp argued for the structure to be relocated to Sherman Towers. She referenced a city report that showed the stop served more than double the amount of people than the bus shelter’s new proposed spot on Fourth St. and River St.

“The location that is being suggested by administration and the advertiser had 50 riders over [an] eight-day period, [but] Sherman Towers had 110 riders,” she told council.

Transportation and Traffic Manager Keri Sapsford explained to council because the city works with an advertising contractor to fund shelters and benches, their locations must be okayed by the company.

“Our advertiser has identified they didn’t want to put a shelter there because of the vandalism issues they’ve experienced downtown in the past,” she told paNOW after the meeting.

Peutz Enterprises sells the ads and pays the city a monthly fee and covers the cost of the structures’ maintenance.

Sapsford suggested the residents could use the city’s new live transit tracking website to see when the bus would be passing their apartment and avoid waiting in the cold. If the seniors didn’t have Internet, a screen displaying the website could be installed in the building lobby.

Ultimately council voted to move ahead with plans to relocate the shelter to the stop recommended by administration, pending final approval.

Mayor Greg Dionne apologized to Greenwood and other members of the tenant association who were in the audience at Monday night’s meeting.

“Unfortunately, even though I support the seniors, we have a process. At this point, I can’t help you because we might be taking it away from seniors on Fourth [St.],” he said.

Greenwood said she and her fellow residents weren’t giving up on getting a bus shelter and would be talking to their ward councillor, Lennox-Zepp, about their options going forward.

“We’re very disappointed,” she said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom