NORFOLK – One of the last bus drivers in Norfolk begins his day by taking Nancy Stehlik to work.

Wrapped in a purple coat and earmuffs, Stehlik inches her walker onto the small bus’s wheelchair lift.

Driver Neil Schlecht pushes a button and the lift whirs down, placing Stehlik outside of work.

For the rest of the day, he takes seven people to clinics, church and the grocery store. He jokes with riders just as he’s long done as a driver for North Fork Area Transit, the bus service which, until recently, used 35 buses and vans to give as many as 10,000 rides a month.

It feels like any normal day...