Shelter from the storm: Local construction firm donates protected bus stop for local kids

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Whatever challenges they might face during the 2020-’21 academic year, school kids who catch the bus at the juncture of Woodland Drive and Samuelson Avenue at least won’t have to wait in the elements, thanks to a bus stop shelter donated by local homebuilder, lifelong local and former Sandpoint City Councilman Justin Schuck, of Idagon Homes.

Brad Shuttle, left, Brent Lockwood, center, and Justin Schuck, right, stand in front of the covered bus stop at Woodland Drive and Samuelson Ave. that they volunteered to build. Courtesy photo.

Beginning in early October, Schuck and his crew reached out to the Lake Pend Oreille School District about constructing the shelter, with LPOSD Director of Transportation James Koehler writing to Schuck in an email, “That will be a very positive improvement for the kids at that stop.”

The city of Sandpoint also got behind the project, which required pouring a concrete slab, with materials donated by Interstate and finish work by Thompson Concrete. The team finished the work by Nov. 20, just as the weather turned nasty, and was proud to stencil the phrase, “Stay in School” into the concrete. 

“I was just driving my kids to school one day and saw about 15 kids standing out in the weather … and I happen to own a construction company that builds stuff,” Schuck told the Reader. 

The shelter is almost complete; Schuck is still looking for three benches — ideally, one six-foot church pew and two eight-foot pews — and hopes soon to install a solar light. After that, kids in the area will be enjoying perhaps one of the best-crafted shelters in the state.

“It’s fun to give back,” said Schuck.