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The MacGyvers of St. Andrew’s ready the corner bus shelter again
The MacGyvers of St. Andrew’s ready the corner bus shelter — again
Written by Gary Wesman
With summer ending and school begun, a couple of fellas from our parish not named MacGyver repaired and tidied the bus shelter at the corner of West Sixth and Raspberry streets.
The maintenance men and others from St. Andrew Church have been doing this every year since the late 1990s. They do it for the benefit of schoolkids, neighbors, bus riders and anyone ducking for shelter from a storm.
“Helping keep our neighbors warm and dry: That’s the whole idea,” said Jerry Martin, a parish council member.
The St. Andrew bus shelter, now ready for boarding again. (Photo provided by Dominic Sansone and Copy King)
Every day 5,100 vehicles, give or take, go through the intersection of West Sixth and Raspberry streets. Among them are 28 east- and westbound EMTA buses on weekdays, 30 buses on Saturdays. All pass the now-familiar shelter on the southwest corner, which stands on the lawn just off the church and the former St. Andrew School building.
Ours is not a replica of an EMTA shelter. Many people probably assume it’s provided by EMTA but the shelter there now was and is the church’s doing.
Credit for this goes to the late Monsignor Richard Sullivan, pastor of St. Andrew from 1996 until his retirement in 2012. Msgr. Sullivan had St. Andrew School students uppermost in mind but also wanted it for the wider neighborhood, parishioners or not, and for all bus riders.
The EMTA shelters nearest to ours are more than a mile apart, placed at Frontier Park and on Gridley Park along Liberty Street. In between are private and public schools, a full-to-the-rafters city neighborhood, and St. Andrew Church. West Sixth Street is one of the fixed routes of EMTA, which has upwards of 2.7 million riders a year. Quite a few of them take a load off their feet courtesy of the church.
“I feel bad for people carrying bags, waiting for the bus and they’re out there in the rain and snow,” Frank Necci said.
Necci and Rich Martin are the parish’s maintenance men and groundskeepers, dividing up the workdays. Now in their 60s, both worked in construction as members of Laborers Union Local 603. In September they repaired, strengthened and cleaned the shelter and added a few things.
Ask about work done on the shelter this and past years and you will notice a pattern. Few of the materials were bought. Most things Necci and Martin got from of the church’s garage. They try to be MacGyvers.
“All those guys are the same. Instead of running to the hardware store, we’ve got it. We always save stuff. Get it out of the garage,” said Joe Weindorf, a parishioner.
New this year are two benches shaped, leveled, smoothed, finished to a gloss and set perpendicular. Necci fashioned the seats from leftover pinewood planks in the garage. The woods are unmatched shades of blonde and brown but, as one parishioner said, “When you wanna sit down, hey, you got somewhere to sit.”
Which brings up a recurring headache: Vandalism. The old bench was one Necci brought from home. It got stolen.
“Somebody walked away with it,” he said. “It was a nice bench, I didn’t screw it down, so it disappeared. Rich screwed these to the floor. No one’s walking away with them.”
The most time-consuming chore was ridding the shelter of graffiti. The MacGyvers tried a couple different ways without much success until they found (in the garage) a mild paint thinner. Apply, wait, scrape, repeat. Then give it a power wash.
We offer shelter along the West Sixth Street bus routes come rain or shine, sleet or snow. (Photo provided by Dominic Sansone and Copy King)
Still to be done, at this writing, is to install two plexiglass panels that had been kicked in.
The first round of repairs were finished Tuesday, Sept. 20. The next day a light rain fell. Then it rained buckets for eight straight days, sending meteorologists to search the record books.
Monsignor Sullivan’s first purpose for the bus shelter ended when St. Andrew School closed in 2006. The shelter stays in part because the school building remains in use by children and parents. First it was leased by Montessori Regional Charter School, now by the Erie Family Center, a social services nonprofit.
On Dec. 29, 2017, Associated Press photographer Tony Dejak snapped a photo of Necci clearing snow in front of St. Andrew Church, a picture that was reprinted in newspapers and weather blogs across the country. That winter Erie, and the bus shelter, withstood a record 166 inches of snow.
“Just last year we reinforced the ceiling cable and squeezed this thing together with a couple turnbuckles,” Necci said. “It’s pretty sturdy.”
Between weather and vandals the shelter has taken more punches than Rocky Balboa but, to Necci’s knowledge, has never fallen.
“It keeps falling apart. We keep putting Band-aids on it,” he said.
The MacGyvers of St. Andrew’s ready the corner bus shelter — again
Written by Gary WesmanWith summer ending and school begun, a couple of fellas from our parish not named MacGyver repaired and tidied the bus shelter at the corner of West Sixth and Raspberry streets.
The maintenance men and others from St. Andrew Church have been doing this every year since the late 1990s. They do it for the benefit of schoolkids, neighbors, bus riders and anyone ducking for shelter from a storm.
“Helping keep our neighbors warm and dry: That’s the whole idea,” said Jerry Martin, a parish council member.
The St. Andrew bus shelter, now ready for boarding again. (Photo provided by Dominic Sansone and Copy King)
Every day 5,100 vehicles, give or take, go through the intersection of West Sixth and Raspberry streets. Among them are 28 east- and westbound EMTA buses on weekdays, 30 buses on Saturdays. All pass the now-familiar shelter on the southwest corner, which stands on the lawn just off the church and the former St. Andrew School building.
Ours is not a replica of an EMTA shelter. Many people probably assume it’s provided by EMTA but the shelter there now was and is the church’s doing.
Credit for this goes to the late Monsignor Richard Sullivan, pastor of St. Andrew from 1996 until his retirement in 2012. Msgr. Sullivan had St. Andrew School students uppermost in mind but also wanted it for the wider neighborhood, parishioners or not, and for all bus riders.
The EMTA shelters nearest to ours are more than a mile apart, placed at Frontier Park and on Gridley Park along Liberty Street. In between are private and public schools, a full-to-the-rafters city neighborhood, and St. Andrew Church. West Sixth Street is one of the fixed routes of EMTA, which has upwards of 2.7 million riders a year. Quite a few of them take a load off their feet courtesy of the church.
“I feel bad for people carrying bags, waiting for the bus and they’re out there in the rain and snow,” Frank Necci said.
Necci and Rich Martin are the parish’s maintenance men and groundskeepers, dividing up the workdays. Now in their 60s, both worked in construction as members of Laborers Union Local 603. In September they repaired, strengthened and cleaned the shelter and added a few things.
Ask about work done on the shelter this and past years and you will notice a pattern. Few of the materials were bought. Most things Necci and Martin got from of the church’s garage. They try to be MacGyvers.
“All those guys are the same. Instead of running to the hardware store, we’ve got it. We always save stuff. Get it out of the garage,” said Joe Weindorf, a parishioner.
New this year are two benches shaped, leveled, smoothed, finished to a gloss and set perpendicular. Necci fashioned the seats from leftover pinewood planks in the garage. The woods are unmatched shades of blonde and brown but, as one parishioner said, “When you wanna sit down, hey, you got somewhere to sit.”
Which brings up a recurring headache: Vandalism. The old bench was one Necci brought from home. It got stolen.
“Somebody walked away with it,” he said. “It was a nice bench, I didn’t screw it down, so it disappeared. Rich screwed these to the floor. No one’s walking away with them.”
The most time-consuming chore was ridding the shelter of graffiti. The MacGyvers tried a couple different ways without much success until they found (in the garage) a mild paint thinner. Apply, wait, scrape, repeat. Then give it a power wash.
We offer shelter along the West Sixth Street bus routes come rain or shine, sleet or snow. (Photo provided by Dominic Sansone and Copy King)
Still to be done, at this writing, is to install two plexiglass panels that had been kicked in.
The first round of repairs were finished Tuesday, Sept. 20. The next day a light rain fell. Then it rained buckets for eight straight days, sending meteorologists to search the record books.
Monsignor Sullivan’s first purpose for the bus shelter ended when St. Andrew School closed in 2006. The shelter stays in part because the school building remains in use by children and parents. First it was leased by Montessori Regional Charter School, now by the Erie Family Center, a social services nonprofit.
On Dec. 29, 2017, Associated Press photographer Tony Dejak snapped a photo of Necci clearing snow in front of St. Andrew Church, a picture that was reprinted in newspapers and weather blogs across the country. That winter Erie, and the bus shelter, withstood a record 166 inches of snow.
“Just last year we reinforced the ceiling cable and squeezed this thing together with a couple turnbuckles,” Necci said. “It’s pretty sturdy.”
Between weather and vandals the shelter has taken more punches than Rocky Balboa but, to Necci’s knowledge, has never fallen.
“It keeps falling apart. We keep putting Band-aids on it,” he said.