An additional shelter for bus riders recently installed on North Rolling Road near its intersection with Baltimore National Pike is the centerpiece of several improvements planned for the busy commercial area.
Councilman Tom Quirk, who represents the 1st District, which includes Catonsville, said a "public-private effort" between area politicians, the Maryland Transit Authority and a nearby Walmart will improve the heavily commercial area.
Quirk said he and Del. James Malone, who represents District 12A, which includes Catonsville, worked with the MTA to install the new bus shelter on the Walmart store's side of North Rolling Road.
According to an email from MTA spokesman Joe Sviatko, the shelter cost $6,000 and was installed the last week of June.
"It's another shelter for everybody to sit and it's another shelter to get people out of the weather," Malone said.
The additional shelter's extra room is designed to eliminate the use of overturned carts taken from a nearby shopping center as seating, Quirk said.
"It wasn't presenting the right image," Quirk said of people sitting on the carts.
Additionally, the heavily commercial area had a shopping cart corral installed in the Walmart parking lot, which Quirk said was "sorely needed."
The Walmart at 6205 Baltimore National Pike has agreed to donate plants and bushes to beautify the area near the bus stops, which should take place by the fall, Quirk said.
"We're working to make the area look a lot more attractive," Quirk said.
"It's still not where we want it to be," he said. "But hopefully, in the next couple of months when they do the plantings, it will look a lot better."
