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With rainy season just around the corner, a Boulder Creek resident is continuing to lobby for covered shelters at select bus stops in San Lorenzo Valley — but with little success.
 Despite efforts to install covered shelters at selected bus stops, area residents will have to wait little bit longer. Above, Felton resident Tim Cooley waits for a bus at the Felton Faire bus stop. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner
With rainy season just around the corner, a Boulder Creek resident is continuing to lobby for covered shelters at select bus stops in San Lorenzo Valley — but with little success.
John Wirth and other valley bus riders will have to wait at least another few months — maybe longer — for shelters at various locations along Highway 9 in the San Lorenzo Valley.
“I’ve punched all the buttons,” Wirth said about the three years he’s been asking for shelters to be erected. “It’s difficult to get to the right button to push.”
Wirth has requested that Santa Cruz Metro build shelters at stops at the Boulder Creek fire station, Highlands Park in Ben Lomond, the Felton Faire shopping center and the Brookdale post office.
“We do want to get more bus shelters out there, especially now when we have increased ridership,” said Scotts Valley City Councilman Dene Bustichi, who represents Metro on the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission. Bustichi had not heard of Wirth’s requests.
Wirth, who is retired and on disability because of a kidney disease that affects his immune system, says finding shelter from the rain or hot sun is a problem when waiting for the bus.
“If they don’t see you at a stop, they keep rolling right past,” he said.
Wirth even went up the ladder with his cause, writing letters to county supervisors, the Coastal Commission, the state transportation commission and, he said, to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“By golly, I want an answer — that’s all,” Wirth said.
Things are moving slowly.
However, in the past year, two shelters have been constructed on Mt. Hermon Road in Scotts Valley with more in the works, said Metro general manager Les White.
At Highlands Park and the Boulder Creek fire station, Metro is counting the number of riders, White said.
“It’s in Caltrans’ right-of-way,” White said. “They’ve asked for passenger counts.”
The counts will take three to four months, at which point Caltrans will decide if Metro can put up the shelters. Soon after that, the shelters could be built, White said.
The stop in front of the fire station in Boulder Creek is impacted when the fire engines are in the driveway, said Boulder Creek Fire Chief Kevin McClish, which is an additional concern.
“We’d love to see the bus shelter moved, but really, there’s nowhere else (to put it),” McClish said.
The Felton Faire bus stop is a separate issue. Felton Faire owner Marin Co. wants the stop removed from the shopping center after a bus ran into the shelter and it fell onto a pedestrian more than two years ago.
Owner Robert Marin believes the stop will be moved. However, finding a suitable location will be a challenge.
“I can’t say for sure when,” Marin said. “The reality is, it will take some time.”
Metro wants to keep the stop at its current locale and has asked the county planning department to put a condition on any improvement plans to Felton Faire that would require Marin to keep the stop.
While the hurdles seem to keep piling up, Wirth said he will keep pushing for shelters in the valley.
“All I know is that I’m on foot and I’m retired and I don’t know why there is all this foot-dragging here,” Wirth said.
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