Ignacio residents soon will be able to ride a $3 shuttle bus round-trip to Bayfield to buy groceries.
Southern Ute Community Action Programs temporarily will provide public transit connecting the Ignacio area with The Grocery Store in Bayfield. This is in response to the pending closure of Shur Valu – one of two grocery stores Ignacio – on Monday. The other grocery store in Ignacio is Roots Natural Foods on Goddard Avenue.
Peter Tregillus, who works with SUCAP administration, said the agency went through the Colorado Department of Transportation to approve the new Road Runner route because the community was in need. CDOT endorsed the additional route, he said.
News has traveled quickly through word of mouth and fliers. So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, Tregillus said.
SUCAP already has a shuttle bus between Ignacio and Durango.
“Some people already use Road Runner to grocery shop in Durango,” Clayton Richter, director for SUCAP’s Road Runner Transportation Program Division, said in a news release. “This offers them a shorter trip on the east side of the county.”
Additionally, the Ignacio Senior Center, which works with SUCAP, will add one trip per week of assisted shopping to The Grocery Store at Bayfield. Assisted shopping is for people with disabilities and the elderly. The senior center will also continue its weekly assisted grocery shopping trip to Durango.
The SUCAP public transit will provide curb-to-curb services to The Grocery Store in Bayfield. Three runs per week will leave just before noon and allow one hour of shopping.
The senior center also will offer escorted transportation services for those with disabilities and the elderly. The service provides assistance, security and safety for boarding and exiting as well as help for loading and unloading groceries.
The Ignacio Senior Center will continue its Monday assisted trips to Walmart.
Punch passes with discounts are available. Also, the Durango Transit Center will continue to honor monthly passes.
The program will continue if residents make use of the service, Tregillus said.
The service is planned to last for about 10 months, until a new grocery store is built in a remodeled building that housed the Shur Valu.
“In the end, you’ve got to eat, and not everyone can drive to Durango or Bayfield by themselves,” Tregillus said.
vguthrie@durangoherald.com
