Eugene Chamber honors Lane Transit District as Essential First Citizens

 

Lane Transit District (LTD) bus operators and staff members shared in the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual First Citizen Award with medical personnel, educators, first responders, farmers, and banking professionals as essential workers who kept Eugene healthy and its economy moving forward during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 Pandemic.

Accepting the award on behalf of LTD was Brett Nice, a long-time District bus operator. He and other essential workers representing their industries were featured in a video presented at the Eugene Chamber’s annual in-person Celebration of Business on June 29, at the Graduate Hotel and was live streamed via the Internet to those attending the event remotely.

“I was honored to accept the award for the bus operators, mechanics, bus maintenance personnel, and a multitude of staff who have worked so diligently to keep our buses delivering passengers to the essential places they needed to go during the pandemic,” Nice said. “Congratulations and thank you to the other First Citizen recipients for their commitment to our community and thank you to the Eugene Chamber for recognizing our joint efforts.”

“I am proud of our bus operators and the entire LTD staff,” said Aurora Jackson, LTD’s General Manager. “We worked together as a team to move through the barriers the pandemic set before us. I also want to thank the Eugene Chamber for recognizing LTD and the other First Citizen recipients for their dedication during this truly historic time in our world.”

During the response to the pandemic, LTD modified its bus routes and schedules as well as bus passenger capacities to meet the health-first requirements set by the state and local governments for transit operations. In addition to nightly deep cleaning, for several months LTD staff would clean each bus after they arrived with passengers at the Eugene and Springfield stations.

“LTD thanks our passengers and the community for their support and resilience during this time,” Jackson said. “We look forward to welcoming more passengers onto the LTD buses as we all begin to embrace community recovery from the pandemic’s many restrictions.”