To the editor:

I would like to publicly thank Jerry Dombrowsky and Stephen Bryans and his crew from the roadways operations division for braving the wind chill to pour the missing concrete at our bus stop on Sutherland Ave. near Burtch Rd.

You are truly the hometown heroes in my eyes gentlemen and deserve the recognition and applause for bringing this bus stop into the here and now. It has been mis-labelled as an accessible bus stop for over a decade because the pad fit the size requirements for a manual wheelchair. The problem was that the majority of disabled bus riders are in power wheelchairs which require this extra foot of concrete on the pad to make it safer and truly accessible. Those who inquired about the lack of required pad space were advised to go to a more accessible bus stop.

We all understand that it is nigh on impossible to comprehend how these small changes make such a big difference in our lives, unless you have sat where we are sitting. None of us forget the dark ages when we did not even have curb cuts and had to use the driveways, we cannot thank you enough for helping to improve our paths, and for at least trying to understand the needs behind our service requests.

Now if we could just encourage you to use asphalt instead of concrete (which by the way is like riding on railroad ties), eventually this city would smooth out and be a less painful part of the future rather than continue to be caught up in these obsolete regulations from the Neanderthal era of public transportation. Yes, some of us are still in manual wheelchairs but with this new expanded pad size, it will now make it even easier for them to get on and off the bus at this stop, as well as all the rest of us.

I am hoping that the funding is already in place for snow removal from the bus stops this winter as I’m sure we all realize that crews need to follow the plows to clean away what’s left behind at each bus stop so that the buses can get close enough to put the ramp down and not land it on top of the foot high pile of rock hard snow.

If I can get out and about and see you out there working I will joyously applaud your efforts and wish you well, as your jobs can’t be easy especially in the winter time.

The very best to you all in 2018.

Windy Willow, Kelowna