MONCTON — A bus shelter in downtown Moncton was taken down Monday morning after nearly 30 years of service.
The residents of the building it serves weren't exactly sad to see it go.
Located at the intersection of St. George and Cornhill streets, it was once used as protection from the wind, rain and snow, but was no longer a safe place for some.
Residents of the apartment building it stood in front of said it had become a gathering place for drug use with as many as a dozen people inside at a time.
“It just got out of hand in recent weeks,” said Moncton resident Murray Clark. “It was filthy. There was debris all over the place. Old shoes, clothing. It was awful.”
The bus stop is located just steps away from a dry homeless shelter.
The City of Moncton said it tried to address the issue of people gathering inside the bus shelter through increased monitoring from Codiac Transpo supervisors and from visits from by-law officers and the Codiac Regional RCMP, but to no avail.
Eleanor Bannister has lived in the Cornhill Street apartments since September. She wasn’t sad to see it go either.
“Oh, there was a lot of drugs and that. A lot of people sleeping here. It was pitiful. It's just pitiful. I'm glad that it's gone, but we're still going to have problems,” said Bannister.
Alannah Blackmore is the general manager of Eastern Safety Services, the company that provides 24-7 security for the building. She said the shelter was in a total state of disarray before being taken apart.
“It was full of illicit drug activity, illicit drug paraphernalia. It was used as a recluse whether to use those drugs or whether it was to house from the elements themselves,” said Blackmore.
City of Moncton spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc said the bus shelter had been in place since 1994 and was scheduled to be replaced in five years.
It was located on private property so an agreement with the private land owner was needed before it could be taken down.
“Due to the age of the shelter, the maintenance requirements as well as the use of it, and after attempts to monitor and visit, it was decided that it will be removed for the time being,” said LeBlanc in an email. “It can be reassessed in the future and the shelter could be installed again.”
LeBlanc said the bus stop will remain in place and transit service will continue.
