By Marcia Moore
SHAMOKIN — Diane Fabrizio had planned for a month to do her holiday shopping at the Lycoming Mall near Muncy, an excursion that was canceled at the last moment by order of the Northumberland County transportation director.
Fabrizio was among the eight members of Shamokin Senior Center who paid $7.70 for the round-trip bus ride one month in advance.
She boarded the bus at 8 a.m. Tuesday and traveled to three other places to pick up elderly residents before the county driver received a radio call from Transportation Director Dennis Hepler.
“We heard Hepler tell the driver, ‘Take them home. Now,’ ” Fabrizio said.
Fabrizio and the other women were rebuffed when they offered to pay extra to get to the Macy’s department store at the mall.
“We were ready to cry,” she said.
It turns out that one of the eight riders had fallen ill and couldn’t make the trip.
County-run bus trips require at least eight riders to make it “economically feasible,” said Commissioner Frank Sawicki, the board chairman.
While several women declined to complain out of fear they would lose the transportation they rely on for medical visits and shopping, Fabrizio got in touch with the commissioners.
She received sympathetic responses from Commissioners Kurt Masser and Vinny Clausi, both of whom told Fabrizio they would have driven the bus themselves.
What the seniors aren’t getting is a bus ride to the mall before Christmas. The next monthly trip is not scheduled until January.
Sawicki described the situation as a “public relations nightmare,” but said a shortage of county drivers prompted Hepler to call off the trip in case an emergency would arise.
On the same day as the planned shopping trip, three county drivers called in sick and one driver quit, Sawicki said.
He added that the senior center also bears some responsibility for not filling the bus for these types of trips.
Fabrizio said she’s already paid for another county-run bus trip in January and hopes she’ll get to her destination.
