Birch Bay man buys bus shelter for students

Every morning on his way to work at about 7:20 a.m., Jeff Schamel noticed a crowd of six to eight kids and parents waiting for the school bus, often huddled in the rain, on Anderson Road near its intersection with Beach Way Drive in Birch Bay.

“I stopped and asked the kids one day, ‘If someone bought you a shelter, would you take care of it?’” he said.

They said they would, so Schamel bought an old Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) bus shelter for $200 at Scrap-it Metal Recycling in Ferndale, pressure washed it and hauled it to the school bus stop in early January.

A few days later, he found it covered in caution tape – WTA, which has its own bus stop right next to the shelter, was concerned about Schamel’s shelter. WTA has a process for placing and installing bus shelters to make sure they’re safe and serve the community and this one hadn’t been through the process, said WTA spokesperson Maureen McCarthy.

WTA officials met with Schamel and decided they wanted to work with him, as he seemed to have all the right intentions, McCarthy said. So Schamel put a sign on the shelter stating that it isn’t a WTA shelter, and WTA moved its bus stop down the street to alleviate its liability concerns.

“I just want to give a shout out to WTA. Look what they did for the kids,” Schamel said.

Now when Schamel drives by on rainy mornings, the kids are under cover and waving at him.