Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The final seven of 11 new buses have arrived at the School District 55 Transportation Department and are ready to roll.
District drivers brought the first four Bluebirds on Chevrolet chassis, small specialty buses, from Detroit, Mich., during spring break, during which drivers had to dodge tornados and cope with snow, traffic jams and storms.
This trip, to bring the seven full-length buses, wasn’t as exciting as the spring trip. About the toughest part was the hot weather, Transportation Supervisor L.D. Ellison said chuckling.
“Our oldest bus out now will be a 1994,” Ellison said. When he came to Sweet Home 10 years ago, “we had a 21-year-old bus on a daily route.
“I think our fleet is in the best condition it ever has been.”
The fleet now consists of 31 buses, including a 1996, a 1997, three 1998 buses, a 1999 trip bus, two 2000 buses and 11 2002 buses, Ellison said. Six buses are assigned as spares. Three of those are used on trips out of the district.
The 2002s have close to 90,000 miles on them. Those are the ones the new buses will replace.
The district has 25 daily runs during the school year. Total, the district travels 440,000 miles per year.
The longest five routes run some 23,000 to 25,000 miles per year, Ellison said. Six of the new buses, Brattain Internationals, will be used on the longest routes.
One of them, a flat-nosed Bluebird, will be reserved for trips.
The new buses were purchased for about $82,000 each, Ellison said. The 11 buses cost a total of about $850,000 on a six-year lease-purchase program.
The six Brattain buses were driven back to Oregon by district drivers from Tulsa, Okla., in June. The full-length Bluebird was driven from Georgia to Oklahoma to rendezvous with the other six.
They were taken to Albany for extra work on emissions by the dealer prior to delivery to Sweet Home.
They are “environmentally compliant with all federal regulations,” Ellison said. Ninety-five percent of the emissions is removed from the exhaust.
Ellison noted that with all of the miles driven in a year in District 55, his drivers had no reportable accidents, he said. Accidents are reportable when damage is in excess of $500 to either a bus or to other personal property or vehicles.
Ellison is planning to present safety awards to drivers in October “to recognize those who have been driving accident-free,” he said. He is reviewing records from the past 13 years.