The Buzz Bus is Back!

Bearing resemblance in color to a busy bee, the Buzz Bus is once again trundling the streets of Durango, providing a free, sober, safe ride home to anyone, especially those who shouldn't drive. When The Hive, a youth center community space, acquired a bus this past January for its transportation, for its events. The name Buzz Bus felt like the perfect fit when the purpose of the original Buzz Bus came up. Well, Hive found it had the perfect solution. You're watching the Local News Network brought to you by The Payroll Department and Tafoya Barrett and Associates. I'm Wendy Graham Settle.

One thing that we are all about is sober spaces and sober living. And that is something The Hive does, is provide that sober, safe space. But we do realize that there is a drinking community here in Durango and we'd like to support them in order to get home safely or just have better practices around their drinking. So we actually got this bus in January purchased by a donor who's an amazing local that's on my Board of Directors and has supported The Hive since day one. And we were trying to name the bus and being that we're The Hive, I was like, let's call it the Buzz Bus. And then that's when I realized that, Oh my gosh, we need to do the Buzz Bus again. The Buzz Bus provides an on call service, so it has no fixed route and drivers are out and about on Friday and Saturday nights from 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.. If it's passing, you can wave it down or call the bus from anywhere within the city limits. The Buzz Bus started providing the safe, sober ride home service in May, and Borland said many people are happy to see the bus out on the streets again.

People are really excited. Sometimes we feel like they're hailing us down, but they're more just waving in excitement and chasing us down the street. Some nights are slow, but some nights are crazy. But it's been manageable. It's been really fun. People are so grateful. And it just feels really good to be able to offer this, driving around downtown and people being just shocked with that it's free. We do take donations, though. We like to tip the drivers. I do pay the drivers an hourly wage, but it's great to give them some tips as well.

The Buzz Bus is hard at work outside of Friday and Saturday nights, taking kids involved in the high youth programs to camps and day events. If a group is in need of transportation, it's available for individual events as well. Boreland said The Hive recognizes the need for transportation in rural areas like Durango. And so the Buzz Bus is a way to address some of those issues without additional costs. You can support the Buzz Bus in a variety of ways, including tipping the driver.

There is an opportunity to sponsor the Buzz Bus, is a local business or family. I have different tiers from $500 to 5000, up to 5000, you can get a huge decal on our bus. We do have a couple local businesses that have committed to supporting the Buzz Bus. If you want to bumper sticker on there, you can contribute. I'd say the favorite part about the Buzz Bus is the community coming together to support it. We've had a lot of people pitch in, whether that be financially or as drivers or as ambassadors, which are kind of the bouncer of the bus. It's been really cool to see the downtown bars get really excited for supporting us and also being able to call us when somebody needs a ride.

To learn more about the Buzz Bus and other Hive programs, visit thehivedurango.com. To call the Buzz Bus on Friday and Saturday nights, call 9705080445. Thanks for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I'm Wendy Graham Settle.

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