Catch a ride with free Saturday shuttle service beginning this weekend
Thursday, August 7, 2008 11:57 PM PDT
By Amy M.E. Fischer
Printable version
E-mail this articleThis Saturday, the public can hitch a ride on a free shuttle bus running between downtown Longview, the Triangle Center and the Cowlitz County Expo Center.
The shuttle will make the roughly 15-minute loop continuously between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., with stops on Broadway between Commerce and 12th Avenues (by the Columbia Bank parking lot), Vernie’s Pizza at the Triangle Center, and directly across from the fairgrounds’ main gate.
Established through a partnership between the Longview Downtowners Association, CAP and local business sponsors, the shuttle service will continue every Saturday for at least the next month to bring people to community events, said Longview downtown business builder Hank Sowerwine.
If the shuttle is successful, it will be back next year for the Longview Saturday Market’s 22-week season from May through October, he said.
“It will help relieve the pressure and inconvenience of parking,” Sowerwine said. “This is going to be the beginning of what we hope will be a consistent and expanding service.”
CAP is providing a 12-passenger wheelchair-accessible bus, and sponsors will pay the $130 cost for the driver and fuel, he said.
“So it’s not any taxpayer subsidy of any kind,” added Sowerwine, who has sponsors for the shuttle lined up for the next four weeks.
Here’s what’s going at the fairgrounds and downtown this Saturday:
• The “Believe in the Son” car show by the Solid Rock Cruisers, a Christian car club, will be at the Longview Saturday Market. Open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the market features vendors selling arts and crafts, food and produce on Commerce Avenue between Broadway and Hudson Street.
• Also downtown, the Longview Police Department is holding an open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its main station on Hudson Street and 14th Avenue. Tours start at 11 a.m. and run every half hour until the last tour at 1:30 p.m.
The public will see demonstrations of the Taser, pepper ball and bean bag shot gun; plus SWAT and patrol equipment, confiscated weapons and LPD vehicles. The department will hand out 100 children’s ID fingerprint kits to the first people (with youngsters) who ask for them, and children can dress up in police gear to be photographed by a department employee.
• At the county fairgrounds on Seventh Avenue, the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life is from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday. The overnight event is to celebrate survivorship and raise money to help the cancer society save lives.
cheney119 wrote on Aug 8, 2008 6:49 AM:
alertcitizen wrote on Aug 8, 2008 8:54 AM:
Thanks. "
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