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Misplaced bus shelters in limbo
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Mesa transit officials expect to decide this week if they’ll move one of two bus shelters the city installed on a stretch of road that doesn’t have bus service.
The city paid $32,000 for the shelters as part of a road project a year ago, the Tribune reported Friday, even as Mesa cut $167,000 from transit funding in the last two years.
City officials acknowledged Monday the city has at least two more shelters in east Mesa that aren’t on bus routes, but they said they were paid for by developers who built adjacent shopping centers or housing developments. Buses will eventually serve those shelters, said Matthew Dudley, the city’s transit operations technician.
Transit officials have studied moving one city-installed shelter for a year, but Dudley said budget cuts left no money for his department to pay for an expense estimated at nearly $10,000. Still, transit officials are meeting with other city departments this week to see if they’ll foot the bill.
"Hopefully we can work this thing out," Dudley said.
Mesa engineering officials ordered the shelters in a $7.7 million road reconstruction project without realizing they were on a part of Broadway Road where the bus route turns onto a smaller street to stop at a hospital and medical clinics.
Transit officials want to move the idle shelter on Broadway Road near Recker Road, Dudley said, but would leave one on Broadway near 63rd Street because it would be more costly to move.
The relocated shelter would go in front of Sun Valley High School near Lindsay Road and Southern Avenue.
City Council members were mixed on moving the shelter.
Councilwoman Janie Thom called the unused shelters "a scandal" but said they should stay in place because it’s likely bus routes will serve them someday.
"Let’s move them to where we can use them," Councilman Mike Whalen said. "I’m still pretty amazed that they ended up there in the first place."
Mesa also has unused shelters on the northeast corner of Baseline and Sossaman roads and on the southwest corner of Guadalupe Road and Ellsworth Street. Dudley said he believes developers funded those projects, and that the city would probably extend routes there when transit funding improves.
"There could be service there and moving those would just be kind of pointless," Dudley said.
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