Madison Heights Volunteers Shovel Every Bus Stop in the City
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Feb. 23, 2015)
Twenty volunteers, coordinated through several local groups and supported by local businesses, spent their Sunday afternoon shoveling every bus stop in town to make them more accessible for people who ride the SMART Bus system.
With 100 stops in the city it took the volunteers over three hours to chip through the layers of ice and shovel down the mounds of snow that tend to get built up around the stops when snowplows come through. The 464, 495, 730, 740, and 760 routes use streets in Madison Heights.
In a letter to SMART after the day of shoveling, Madison Heights Mayor Pro Tem and private practice attorney Brian Hartwell explained his motivation for organizing the city-wide shovel. “In past years, SMART honored its commitment to ADA accessibility by properly cleaning dangerous ice from its bus stops. This year I witnessed a disabled man walking in the street because the SMART bus stop at 12 Mile and John R Road was not accessible to pedestrians. I also saw a group of school children standing on a mound of snow taller than a trash can at a SMART bus stop on 11 Mile,” Hartwell wrote.
The shovel-out was not a city-run event, but a grass-roots coming together of residents. The Madison Heights Men’s Club, The Intermediate Women’s Club, Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, Knights of Columbus #7239 Fr. James B. Henry Council, Friends of Madison Heights Area Seniors, Madison Heights/Hazel Park Chamber of Commerce, and Madison Heights Community Roundtable all had volunteers helping that day. Bigby Coffee in Madison Heights provided a central location and hot coffee to keep the hard-working volunteers warm.
After being trained in safety, the volunteers donned bright yellow vests and together put in over 60 hours worth of work, shoveling 100 stops and applying over 200 lbs of rock salt.
“It is amazing to see what we can accomplish when we come together as a community,” Hartwell said.