On Saturday, Guam Education Board chairperson Maria Gutierrez took it upon herself to go around the island to check on grass maintenance at schools, but she felt there were more pressing issues to address. "I was convinced that we were ready but something is missing, and I said, 'Wait a minute - what about the bus stops bus shelters? How well are they? How prepared are they?'" she recalled.

Based on photos taken by Gutierrez, the state of neglect was obvious. On the hunt to find as many poor conditioned bus stops as possible, she came across a concrete bus shelter that had been built two years ago. Right next to it, an old wooden one with nails sticking out.

"What would happen if any of the kids touched that then going further up in a wooden bus stop it's nice it's painted but when I went further up the floor is all warped," said Gutierrez.

One big question posed is who is responsible for the management of village bus stops? According to Gutierrez, though the blame is always placed on the Department of Education it's definitely not their responsibility.

"So the Mayor's Council and DPW and the Island Beautification Task Force have to get together once and for all and address this. Who is responsible for the bus stop because there's bus stop here in route 16 that is right next to the road," she said.

But according to DPW Deputy Director, Jesse Garcia, it's not Public Works' task, either. "When DPW places the bus shelter out there okay the bus shelters are not a funded program in DPW," he noted. "It has to be a community thing it's not only school students using it you got the homeless using it you got different people using it so you know it has to be a group effort."

Gutierrez came to find out that some of the bus stops were adopted. She suggests that if that's the case the Island Beautification Task Force needs to take on the mission of contacting the organizations to call them out.

"What are the requirements when they request that they want to adopt the bus stop is just to put their logo their name there but they don't do anything after that I don't think that should be they should continue to uphold keep up that maintenance of that bus stop that they adopt," she said.

Gutierrez says she understands the village mayors have a lot of work, but must work congruently with DPW along with the Island Beautification Task force to address the safety hazard.

"I know a lot of mayors are doing their best in their villages keeping up there bus stops and cleaning and everything," Gutierrez said. "If you're in that area just pass by the schools and please look because our kids are coming back you know they're excited to come back."

After calling out the village mayors on The Link the morning, Gutierrez says Dededo Vice Mayor, Peter Benevente has been working with DPW on bus stop maintenance, including repairing the flooring of one of the bus stops. Mongmong-Toto-Maite mayor Rudy Paco had also sent out his personnel to clean and sanitize the shelters, but she still has yet to hear back from anyone else.

She says she will return to the bus stops in the days ahead, because of the huge safety hazard it poses.