"It is a great day for Nassau County," said Chris Culver of Culver Associates in front of one of the his brand new bus shelters on the corner of Old Country Road and Glen Cove Road.

In February of 1997 Culver Associates was awarded a contract to rejuvenate the existing bus shelters and to build new ones throughout Nassau County.

A year later 90 Nassau County bus shelters have been refurbished, and there are 50 new shelters that are appearing along bus routes throughout the county.

Culver described these shelters as "full service stands." They are about 12 feet in size, built with glass partitions and equipped with partitioned seats and a public phone. The shelters also have either two or three sides to be used for advertising.

Culver presented Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta with a check for $343,876 in money raised by the advertising. Gulotta noted that this was one of the largest sums ever received by the county.

The shelters cost about $4,500 per unit to manufacture and install. Each individual shelter has the potential to raise $1,500 a month maximum through advertising sales. Nassau County receives 55 percent of the raised revenue.

"It is an aggressive number," said Culver of the percentage shared with Nassau County,"It is one of the higher percentages paid to any municipality in the country."

Said Chairman of the Planning Committee Legislator Richard Nicolello the bus shelter advertising which once raised about $25,000 maximum now has the potential to raise $2 million dollars.

Nicolello explained that the goal of the bus shelter plan was that through working with private industry the county could upgrade the existing shelters, generate money, create a comfort zone for commuting costituents and maintain an aesthetically soothing appearance.

Gulotta lauded constituents formula for improving the shelters citing the new shelters' illumination and features. "You promised and you came through," said County Comptroller Fred Parola to Culver.

Nassau County Director of Customer Services for Long Island Bus Edward Gillen agrees that the new shelters are an improvement and believes that they will draw commuters toward the use of the busses which already service 90,000 people a day on 53 routes.

LI Bus was part of the project working with Director Paul Ponessa of the Nassau County Planning Commission. After speaking to their bus drivers they concluded which shelters needed the most improvement and which areas were the best for establishing new ones.

Gillen said Long Island Bus will continue to be part of the process and would like to see the telephones at the new shelters eventually carry up to the minute bus information for commuters.

He also expressed his interest in seeing more shelters appearing throughout the county. "Mineola is one area we would like to see enhanced," he said in particular because of the bus terminal.

Culver concurred that Mineola would be an excellent area for more of the shelters.

When they are erected in Mineola one of the issues Culver will have to deal with is graffiti. In Mineola property owners are responsible for cleaning up graffiti inflicted on their property.

If graffiti was to be spray painted on one of the new bus shelters then Culver is responsible for cleaning and maintaining them. According to Culver maintenance workers visit the bus shelters every other day.

With a new shelter already erected on the corner of Willis and Old Country Road, Mineola is primed to be the next focus point of the new shelter plan.

Said Ponessa, "We are open to anyone who wants the new shelters."

An additional 50 shelters of the new design are to be installed during the first half of 1998. Perhaps Mineola commuters will benefit from the new shelters in the near future.