BERGENFIELD, NJ -- The Borough of Bergenfield will soon restart its community transportation (mini bus) program in stages. Stage one of the program will pick residents incapable of driving themselves up at their homes and bring them to and from a local grocery store.
The program had been suspended in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19. The bus can accommodate up to 16 senior and or disabled residents at a time and everyone on the bus will be required to wear a mask.
“Our community transportation program is critical for getting residents that are incapable of driving themselves to and from important destinations that they need to get to and I am thrilled that we are able to restart this now,” said Mayor Amatorio. “We will be reopening this in stages to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Please remember to wear a mask and practice social distancing when possible out of respect for other passengers.”
The bus is equipped with a wheelchair lift. However, the resident will need to be able to move their wheelchair on and off of the lift themselves or bring an aide with them to assist. When signing up for the food shopping bus pick up list, the resident would need to sign up their aide as well. For safety reasons, the driver of the bus would need to remain behind the wheel while the bus is in operation.
Interested residents should contact the DPW Office Monday-Friday 7:00am-3:30pm by phone at 201-387-4055 option 3 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be placed on the food shopping pick up list ahead of time. Sign up for the food shopping pick up list is easy – just call the Bergenfield DPW Office, give first and last name, home address to be picked up at, and contact phone number. Once the resident signs up for the food shopping pick up list, the Bergenfield DPW Office will coordinate with the resident on which day, time, and food store they will be going to. Sign ups in advance are necessary so that the Bergenfield DPW Office does not over-occupy/over-book the number of residents on the bus at any one time.
If there is sufficient interest and sign ups in the next few days beginning on Thursday May 27, then the first food store shopping trip could occur as early as next Thursday June 3 and Friday June 4 with pickups beginning at approximately 9:00am on each day.
The bus would stop in front of the addresses of residents who have called the DPW Office ahead of time to be placed on the sign up list to be picked up by the bus. Based on feedback from when those residents sign up, the Borough will determine which local food shopping store it will go to on which day. Once residents complete their food shopping, the bus will drop them back off at their home address.
