HUNTINGTON -- Take a look around the Tri-State, and it's not hard to find evidence of Vickie Shaffer's work.

Tri-State Transit Authority buses are gliding through the streets of Huntington and throughout Cabell and Lawrence counties. The TTA bus station at 4th Avenue and 13th Street is a flurry of buses and passengers coming and going. And Pullman Square -- built with the help of federal dollars granted to the transit authority -- is alive with business people drinking coffee outside, children playing around the fountain and teens shopping or getting together for a movie.

As a leader at TTA since 1980, Shaffer has had her hands in a lot of projects intended to help Tri-Staters get around town for work, school and play, and as a way to assist in community development. She's been described as a woman of tireless enthusiasm, who knows people, politics and how to compromise to get things done. And it's hard for many to believe that she's going into her last year of work before retirement.

Next summer, Shaffer is stepping down at TTA and plans to retire to a quiet home in Randolph County with her husband, Edgar. There's no question she will be missed, say those who have worked with her. The question is, will she really slow down?

"For Vickie, retiring might mean not going to the office every day, but it certainly won't mean quitting," said Joe Lockhart, manager of the Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority in Parkersburg. He suspects she'll still be coming to some state transit association meetings but says, "If it's not (transit), it will be a lot of other things."

Shaffer's passion for improving the Huntington community and the state of West Virginia earned Shaffer two recent distinctions, the 2008 Transit Person of the Year by the West Virginia Public Transit Association, as well as the Distinguished West Virginian Award, given to West Virginians who have contributed significantly to the state or other West Virginians, and who have brought positive attention to the state.

"She's done a lot as a member of the state association but probably some of her biggest contributions have come from her work on the national level, with the American Transportation Association and our congressional people -- paying attention to the whole state, not just Huntington," said Lockhart, who has worked with Shaffer on a statewide level for about 30 years.

U.S. Congressman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., has worked with Shaffer extensively over the years, as he sits on the House Transportation Committee. He put it like this: "Through thick and thin, Vickie Shaffer has worked tirelessly to make Huntington and our region a more liveable, more connected community."

Getting started

A career in transit wasn't something Shaffer had planned. She was born in 1943 in Washington as Arna Victory.

"I was a war baby," she said. "Arna" is a combination of Army and Navy and is a name chosen by her father, a lawyer in the Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps. She grew up living all over the United States and Germany.

She was attending Queens College in Charlotte, N.C., and met Edgar during a spring break trip. She moved to Huntington 44 years ago to be with him.

Back in the 1970s, Shaffer started her career working in a bank and then went to work for the Department of Welfare, serving in a program similar to today's Food Stamp program. Working with the welfare department was hard work, she said, and she decided to go back to Marshall University to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science and governmental relations.

But working with the Department of Welfare was valuable experience, she added.

"I grew up in the officer's corps of the military -- I didn't know anything about common people or poor people," Shaffer said. She came to find out they were a lot like her, except they didn't have money and some didn't grow up with a good example to follow.

After graduating, she worked for two years with KYOVA Interstate Planning Commission before being hired as general manager at TTA, and found that her time working with the welfare department was helpful in addressing the needs of TTA customers, some who were poor as well.

"I've had the opportunity to get to know them because I got the silver spoon out of my teeth," she said. Both she and TTA's general manager, Paul Davis, have spent days down at TTA Center talking to riders.

"We got to know what they did for a living, whether they had grandchildren," she said. She's tried to stay connected, and never in her 30 years has she ever dreaded going to work, Shaffer said.

Every day meant meeting new faces and challenges, which she enjoyed, and it was more a matter of, "What's going to happen today?" she said.

Developments for TTA

Shaffer has undergone several major projects in her years with TTA. When she first started, TTA had more service on the road than it could pay for and support from local revenue was down.

It laid off workers in 1982 and then turned to voters for support of its first levy. "We hired somebody to run the 'Save the TTA' campaign, and it passed overwhelmingly," she said. "We've had 10 (levies) altogether, and they've all passed, largely, I think, because we've established a reputation in the community of integrity and hard work."

Another project the TTA took on was the purchase and renovation of the Greyhound bus station, which is now TTA Center on 4th Avenue. It was dedicated in 1994.

"The station was in disrepair and was a central location for the 'girls of the night,'" Shaffer said. "When we were there, we kept it clean and had security cameras and it became a catalyst that made the neighborhood say, 'We can be better than this.'"

Later in the 1990s, TTA got a face lift. It had every excuse in the world why ridership was going down -- jobs and families leaving Huntington, cheap gas -- but it decided not to accept that, Shaffer said. So it changed its image, logo and fare structure and advertised like crazy. It also started running bus routes at the same time every day, all day long, to make it less confusing for passengers.

"That was 1997 and since then, ridership recovered," Shaffer said.

Pulling for Pullman

And along with improvements to transit service, Shaffer have several "grueling" years to the primary downtown entertainment complex in Huntington.

It took seven years from the day that TTA first talked with the city about developing the 900 block of 3rd Avenue into the lifestyle center that is Pullman Square, to the day that it opened in 2004.

TTA got involved because there were federal dollars to be had that would cover a parking garage and bus station (which is now the Pavilion area) at Pullman Square. It also covered the structure that is now the movie theater and four new buses. Those were all critical pieces to the roughly $60 million puzzle.

Other funds came from the state and from private developers with Metropolitan Partners, Bill Dargusch and Tim Rollins.

Now having worked with Shaffer for about 10 years, Dargusch said he couldn't have asked for a better relationship than the one he's had with Shaffer and Davis at the TTA.

"I think they were willing to understand the needs of a private developer and let us do what we needed to do, and we understood the needs of TTA and stayed away from interfering with them," he said. "The key is that Vickie is the most unselfish public servant I've ever known, and she absolutely represents the public interest beautifully."

He's thrilled about the success of Pullman Square in Huntington but says the best thing about the project has been a great friendship with Shaffer.

Next for TTA

Shaffer won't be able to get rid of Dargusch, even after she retires, he said. But the good thing is that she's groomed a great replacement in Davis, who takes the reins next summer, he added.

"Paul will be as good a steward of TTA going forward as she has been in the past," Dargusch said.

That's been their strategy, Shaffer said. The transit authority is fortunate for a public agency because it can select and train its next leader.

And the training has been top-notch, Davis said.

"She's sharp as a tack," he said of his boss. "When you come for political advice, right down the line, there's nobody better than Vickie Shaffer."

Shaffer has a grown daughter (Sarah Adkins, now of Atlanta) a son in-law, Carl, and twin granddaughters. But she has no sons. Still, she said, in handing TTA to Paul next year, it will feel like handing it over to a son.

"I'll never lose a night's sleep," Shaffer said.

And she has no idea what she's going to do in her retirement, other than spend time in Randolph County with her husband, who has been extremely supportive over the years, she said.

"I have spent most of my life planning, and I ain't making no plan," she said with a laugh. "I'm going to retire. I'll figure out what I'm going to do after I retire."

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Mark Webb/The Herald Dispatch

TTA CEO Vickie Shaffer steps out of a trolley bus on Friday, Aug. 15, 2008, at Pullman Square.

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