Providence Services sees this everyday. We help people working in East Syracuse and Syracuse, but lack of funding does not allow us to help her in Jamesville. With Adequate funding, we could help so many more people. Can we come together as "Neighbors" and provide funding for us to help more people like Shantelle?
AMESVILLE, N.Y. -- Shantelle Priester's daily trip to work could be described as a journey.
Priester takes two different buses before walking several miles to Jamesville Penitentiary.
"The last stop is Iroquois Nursing Home, so once I get off from there I have to walk down the hill and then walk up here to where I work which is a four mile walk. I'm five months pregnant so you can just imagine you know, taking that long walk and this is a very steep hill," she explained.
Each day she walks alongside traffic, and has to wait for the occasional train in Jamesville Town Square.
She's called Centro to see if there's a bus she can take to get to work.
"I've called, I've tried to start a petition and they basically told me there's really nothing they can do for me because it's not cost-efficient for them," said Priester.
Centro says they've heard this complaint before, but don't have the capacity to add more stops or routes right now.
"Three of every four riders that we have do not have access to a car," said Steven Koegel of Centro, "so we do the best that we can with the resources that we have to serve as many transit-dependent individuals as we can. We wish we could do more."
We also reached out to the Jamesville Penitentiary to see if they think there should be a bus that goes there.
They have declined to comment.
So for now, Shantelle will keep on walking.
"This is what I have to do, and I literally don't have a choice," she said.