Fast food wrappers and empty cups dot the rust-colored grass and the dismal mounds of soaked gravel along the edge of Longhill Road as rain courses down and cars speed past.
That site, located at the corner of Longhill and Olde Towne roads, is one of the 257 Williamsburg Area Transit Authority bus stops that lack either a shelter or a bench, forcing riders to stand in the elements while waiting for the bus.
To try to address the issue, a group of locals enrolled in a Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance program for future community leaders created an Adopt-a-Bench program to offer some comforts at heavily used bus stops.
“We were looking for something that benefited the community and had to touch all three jurisdictions, be measurable and have a sustainable angle to it,” said Dawn Oleksy, the environmental coordinator for James City County and a member of the group, known as the LEAD Class of 2015.
The class — made up of about 30 locals — split into small groups at a retreat last fall to pinpoint a project that met the requirements. Oleksy’s group came up with the bus benches, which the class rallied behind.
Now the class is using its combined skills to raise money and awareness for the benches in the coming months. They have already reached an agreement with Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, which has agreed to sponsor three benches on lines serving the hospital.
“Our sponsorship is in the interest of our patients and employees who use bus transportation to reach the hospital or their physician,” Dave Masterson, president of Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center and member of the LEAD Class of 2015, said in a news release. “Sentara feels strongly about supporting programs that positively impact the health and welfare of area residents.”
Along with the three benches Sentara has pledged to pay for — each bench runs between $2,000 and $3,500 — the class hopes to find enough sponsors to pay for 17 more.
To raise the money, the class members will have to leverage their skills. They have been broken into teams based on their skillsets.
Class members whose careers deal with planning, permitting and real estate are responsible for securing permission to build the benches along the sides of roads. Attorneys in the class look over documents to make sure they are in order. Marketing and public relations specialists are working to publicize the projects through news releases and presentations to various boards around the Historic Triangle.
“It’s a variety of skills, and it’s really impressive to see it come together,” Oleksy said.
For WATA, the addition of the stops helps fill in where the authority’s funding falls short.
“I was thrilled when I found out the LEAD Class of 2015 chose WATA bus stop benches as their project,” WATA Executive Director Kevan Danker said in a news release announcing the program. “Their proposal is very timely because with sky-rocketing prices for bus stop shelters with benches, we had to scale back our shelter construction plans by 75 percent, leaving many popular stops with no amenities.”
WATA’s recently approved budget for the upcoming fiscal year — July 1 through June 2016 — contains enough money for up to three new bus shelters, but that would still leave 254 of WATA’s 294 stops without any amenities. Once the class graduates later this year, WATA is likely to take over the Adopt-A-Bench program.
The benches are manufactured by Victory Stanley, a company that specializes in durable furniture for outdoor use. They are made of recycled composite material with powder-coated steel.
Fundraising is ongoing for the project. To find out how to contribute and to see a list of 22 stops under consideration for benches, visit the website the class has established.
