Springsteen funds used to purchase senior citizen bus
Larger bus will cut down on gasoline costs
The city’s senior citizens are ready to roll thanks to a bus to be purchased through funds Bruce Springsteen donated to the city several years ago.
Around 2005, Springsteen donated money to nonprofits throughout the city, as well as a gift of $200,000 to the city itself to offset the purchase of the YMCA building on Main Street for use as a senior citizen center, city manager Terence Reidy said.
Negotiations for the city to purchase the YMCA fell through, so the city put the money in a fund dedicated to the new senior center, which now occupies the second floor of the Springwood Center on Springwood Avenue.
The new bus is worth about $127,000, Reidy said. It can fit 28 passengers and has a lift for wheelchairs. Two chairs can fit inside the bus, Reidy said.
The bus will be used to take Asbury’s seniors on trips, to go shopping, and to do other activities, Reidy said. It will help cut down on gasoline costs for the senior center because the bus used there now usually has to take two trips to transport all the seniors.
The city purchased the bus though Monmouth County Cooperative, which helped save $10,000. The city council unanimously approved the bus’s purchase at last night’s council meeting.
