New bus shelters will soon be available on either side of the newly-upgraded portion of Voght Street.
City staff received word of BC Transit’s 2021 Transit Shelter Program in December of last year, prompting a quick turnaround from the in-house grant writer to apply for the pair of shelters in January.
The shelters are to be situated at Voght Street & Second Avenue and Voght Street & Blackwell Avenue.
Merritt’s Director of Finance and IT Wayne Anderson was pleased that the application was wholly accepted.
“We thought we would begin with two shelters, and if not, maybe we would only get one shelter,” said Anderson. “We were fortunate enough to get the two.”
The City will be responsible to cover approximately 20% of the costs of the shelters, including the installation. Said amount is estimated to be $13,244, while BC Transit will cover the other 80% at a cost of approximately $52,976.
Labour and material are estimated to cost $2,000 per site to the City, for an overall cost of $17,244.
Funds were approved at the May 11 Council meeting to be pulled from the COVID-19 Safe Restart funds in the City’s financial restabilization reserve.
“These funds are available to offset lower revenues,” said Anderson. “We know that transit has seen some decline in revenues over the last year.”
The approved shelters will be of three-sided construction, with solar panels to provide lighting. Anderson said there will be seating on one half of the shelter, and wheelchair room on the other.
Councillor Kurt Christopherson asked Anderson if the maintenance costs include snow removal, to which Anderson confirmed.
Other maintenance items would include:
– Removal of garbage
– Prompt removal of graffiti
– General cleaning (power washing) of structure on a regular basis
– Monitoring and replacement of damaged components
– Proper maintenance for solar batteries.
The shelters will be owned by BC Transit, and maintained by the City of Merritt.
