WEEDSPORT - As Beverly Hunter pulled away from the curb Wednesday with a busload of New York State Fair-goers, she was cut off by a car careening across Route 31B from a side street.

The diminutive Hunter, who has driven the Centro shuttle from Cayuga County to the fair in Syracuse for 22 years, deftly avoided hitting the car. It immediately got caught between the bus and a slow-moving truck, much to the delight of some of her passengers.

For Hunter, of Auburn, the erratic driver was just another challenge to what she does nearly every day. When she's not driving to the fair, she's picking up senior citizens for grocery runs, or bringing workers at the Moravia Correctional Facility back and forth to Auburn.

Hunter didn't start driving Centro buses until she was 52. When a passenger on the bus expressed surprise that the blond-haired Hunter is 74, she nodded in agreement.

"I'll be 75 in December," she said. "Sometimes I can't believe it either."

Hunter is older than many of those who ride her bus on senior citizen days at the fair, when those 65 and over can get in for free. But to her, age has never been an issue - or a barrier.

"I've remodeled my entire house," she said. "I just did my bathroom. I did all the plumbing work and I had to replace part of the floor because it was rotted. I put in new floor joists myself."

She started driving for Centro in 1983 while also driving for a private bus company that served the Auburn Enlarged City School District. She would do morning runs for Centro and be finished in time to pick up her school bus and bring students home in the afternoon. Hunter drove for special needs students, doing local runs and also trips to Rochester.

She retired from the school bus job in 1988, after 14 years, but never thought about giving up driving as a profession.

"I started driving a bus because I wanted the challenge," said Hunter, who stands about 5-feet, 2-inches tall. "I would hate to give it up and stay home. I feel 100 percent better on the days when I know I have to get up and go to work."

She enjoys seeing the same faces year after year on the fair buses, which she said have become a popular mode of transportation.

More people than ever are realizing the benefits of letting someone else drive and being dropped off and picked up at the front gate.

Tickets for adults are $2.50 one way, half that for children and senior citizens.

It beats fighting the traffic and having to walk, said Del Jenner of Centerport, who got on Hunter's bus in Weedsport Wednesday, with his wife, Bonnie. It is not unusual for the Jenners to go to the fair six times.

"We look for her," he said of Hunter.

Hunter averages three round trips a day to the fair on weekdays. Sometimes she leaves from the Fingerlakes Mall, but mostly she drives out of Port Byron and Weedsport and makes stops in Elbridge.

The fair buses are on loan from Centro in Syracuse. She isn't sure how many there are, but at busy times, there can be five or six drivers on the road at once.

When she first started driving, she would have a cash box on the bus and sell tickets.

Now, passengers put bills and coins in exact amounts into a fare box. She keeps a count of fair passengers to help plan adequate coverage for return trips. If anyone brings anything large on the bus, she hefts open the storage compartments underneath.

"It's harder to close them than to open them," she said. "I have to use my foot."

During the run of the fair, Hunter also tries to make her regular shuttle service for residents of the city's senior citizen centers who shop at Wegmans. She said the supermarket pays for the service, which offers senior citizens a way to get their groceries without having to worry about transportation.

A similar service is also provided by Tops Markets.

Hunter likes working part-time because it fits in her busy life, she said.

She takes care of her 98-year-old mother, who still lives in her own home with a nephew, but Hunter takes care of the bills and meal planning.

She also looks out for a mentally-challenged brother and enjoys spending time with her four sons and their families, who live in Auburn. A daughter, Kathleen Goodall, lives in Virginia and is in the Navy.

Although she drives for a living, her sons won't let her drive alone to visit her daughter, she said.

"They think it's too far," she said.

She said the positive comments from her riders keep her behind the wheel.

"I've had some say that they look for me every year," she said about the fair runs. "They said if they know I'm here, they will have a safe ride."

Staff writer Louise Hoffman Broach can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or louise.hoffman@lee.net