nothin Closed For Cleaning | New Haven Independent

Closed For Cleaning

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Erica Lewis appeared crestfallen as she stood in front of the CT Transit ticket kiosk on the Green Tuesday afternoon. A sign informed her that the booth is temporarily closed. She would need to hike over to a Stop & Shop to obtain bus passes.

Why would they do that?” she asked. Will they even have all of the bus passes at the Stop & Shops?”

City transit chief Doug Hausladen said the closure caught city officials by surprise, just as it did riders. The sign did not state how long the closure would last. By Tuesday night he’d learned from the state Department of Transportation that it closed the booth because of mold problems. An official told him the state would present the city a plan of action Wednesday morning in case it is [closed] longer than a day.” Hausladen said the Harp administration is offering a space in City Hall if need be for a temporary kiosk, and he plans to walk around downtown with the DOT to seek other retail spots if the closure drags on.

That probably won’t be necessary: DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick reported Wednesday morning that the booth is being cleaned professionally, and should be open later this afternoon.”

Meanwhile, at Tuesday night’s Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team meeting at City Hall, city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson criticized the way the DOT closed the booth with no advance notice — and questioned whether there might be a better way to institutionalize the services offered there.

We’ve said to them [DOT] that we’d give them space [for bus ticket vending machines], and that we’d commission the vending machines. We’ve run all those things by the commissioner,” Nemerson said. As with a lot of things in Connecticut, you’d think that if it were doable they’d already have done it. There’s probably some reason why they have to have a person in an unheated, unbathroomed little booth for a 100 years on the Green selling stuff.”

Lewis.

Lewis, who lives in West Haven and works in New Haven, said that it has been her experience that the grocery stores do not in fact always have the bus passes she purchases.

She said the clerk at the Stop & Shop in West Haven has told her to call ahead before she heads there to make a purchase because sometimes the passes don’t arrive there by the time they’re expected. Lewis said she purchases a variety of bus passes including a 31-day for herself and her husband and a student pass for her daughter. She also buys disability bus passes for the patients she serves at Allied Community Resources.

Lewis said she prefers to get the passes at the kiosk on the Green because it is stocked with all those passes and it’s just the easiest place to get them. Not having to go to the nearest Shop & Stop is a convenience to her family and her career.

I commute through here and use the bus a lot,” she said.

Fellow bus riders L.D. and Kirk were headed to the kiosk but also were stopped short by the sign. Like Lewis, Kirk commutes from West Haven to New Haven. L.D., who lives in New Haven, uses the bus to get back and forth to work in the city. They both said the closed kiosk would be an inconvenience and probably cost them more since they’ll be paying cash for every bus ride.

And I never have change, so I will have to pay $2 instead of $1.75,” Kirk said.

Thomas Breen contributed reporting.

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