20 buses pass inspection, 8 more waiting

by Nick Delgado

Guam - There's been a lot of frustration about the way things have been running at the Department of Public Works lately. Although more than half of the buses that were illegally driven without tags on Guam's roadways have now passed inspection, Geno's and Anthony's Auto Service owner Anthony Tamayo says more still needs to be done.     

He told KUAM News, "We're up to about 20 buses right now; we got eight more pending because they have some mechanical problems."  Tamayo added that two buses were brought to their shop this morning and passed inspection. He says the remaining eight buses that do not have updated tags are awaiting parts that need to be special ordered.    

"They mentioned to me that some of them needed alternators and batteries and some of them needed radiators and those are the stuff that you need to get the bus going," he said.

Despite the concerns from the community, Tamayo says he is confident that most of the buses at DPW are adequate, saying, "Most of the buses out there are safe, that's what worries everybody out there is the safety of the buses, a lot of the buses are safe and you got to give credit to DPW mechanics, those guys are working diligently just to get these buses up."

But it's more than just the buses that have the community raising concern. Mangilao mayor Nito Blas says he has received various complaints about the bus shelters in his village, noting, "I'm afraid that it might collapse on the kids, so we've been petitioning the bus operations to repair or remove it and build new ones."

Some parents are even shocked about the accident waiting to happen along the corner of Techaira Road and University Drive. Every morning, more than two dozen students wait in that area where a bus stop was recently torn down for structural integrity problems. Mayor Blas says he is still waiting word from DPW Bus Operations regarding the lack of bus shelters, and is even considering building the bus stops himself.  "I'm concerned," he said.  "I want to build. Public Works Bus Operations couldn't care less, I want to move in.  I want to build."

However, DPW Deputy Director Jess Garcia says part of the problem is that Bus Operations is simply not given the budget to handle the bus shelters.