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BiLo closure prompts IndiGo to add new Blairsville route

Date: 3/12/2010

By Jeff Himler, BLAIRSVILLE DISPATCH
Friday, March 12, 2010

As the BiLo supermarket winds down its liquidation sale at its East Market Street location, many residents who have regularly walked to the store to make purchases may be wondering where they’ll turn next to gain access to groceries and other necessities.

Borough officials are hoping to find a new retailer to occupy the store, which is slated to close tomorrow, ending 40 local jobs.

In the meantime, IndiGo, the county transit authority, is providing an interim option for Blairsville residents: a new circular bus route that will start Monday, shuttling riders every half hour among several stops in the borough and shopping and medical facilities in adjacent Burrell Township. The route -- dubbed Silver Route 25 -- also will serve the Burrell villages of Black Lick and Josephine, which have been without a local source of necessities since the closure months ago of the Sheetz convenience store in Black Lick.

IndiGo Executive Director John Kanyan announced plans for the new Blairsville route last week at a town hall meeting scheduled at the Blairsville fire hall by state Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana).

The new route will operate on weekdays, beginning at 10:10 a.m. at the Josephine post office and traveling through Black Lick to shopping and medical facilities along old Rt. 22 before heading into downtown Blairsville. Residential complexes included as stops are the Blairview Apartments, just east of town, and the Conemaugh Terrace senior apartments at West Market and North Spring streets.

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