Nine trade-ins, one new bus to cost district $276,400

It’s not quite the same as trading Ford for Chevy or the old Chevy Suburban for a new Volkswagen, but a relatively new development is coming

soon to Stanley-Boyd Schools:

gasoline-powered buses in

place of the diesel _eet. In a discussion that went over pros and cautions before opting for the pros over a caution from board member Lance Carlson, the Stanley-Boyd Board of Education approved gasoline engines

for its next bus _eet, in place of the current diesel ones. The

switch and savings, made possible in part through an approximate trade-in value of $69,000

for nine buses and a difference between the diesel and gas engine buses of $2,300 a piece (with gas being cheaper), was

put to the superintendent by the bus supervisor, to hear it

told Monday December 21. “Max Link, our bus supervisor, has asked me since I took this position if we can try a gas engine,” district superintendent Jeff Koenig told

the board at its December

21 meeting. Asked what the

advantages to a gas engine

were, Koenig said less maintenance was key to the decision.

“It’s mostly maintenance,” he said, adding that Link said the gas engine had “come a

long way” from the early days.

Among the bene_ts of opting for gas power over diesel were the points that the engine

heated faster, didn’t require

any additive to keep the fuel from gelling, had no need to be plugged-in, and were in bigger demand on the resale market, important to think about with turnaround. Not everyone

was convinced of the superiority of gas to diesel, though, with school board member Lance Carlson raising some

cautions on the district purchase of gas-powered buses.

“I would like to see the gas as a separate vote,” Carlson said of the district getting new and used wheels for the coming year. “As it stands, I will be voting no,” he said. But while Carlson’s attempt to separate the engine fuel from the larger bus vote due to lack of a second, he nonetheless raised his objections beforehand. Among them, Carlson said, was the detail that gas buses would cost more to fuel up, while the last time the district had used gas its worst performer got just two miles to the gallon, while its best averaged just below diesel at six miles per gallon. Reached the next day, Koenig added that gas-powered buses had less idle time and acknowledged pros and

cons together on the question.

“There’s a lot of different pros and cons,” Koenig said of the gas vs. diesel question. The board ultimately opted for gas after weighing the matter.

In an earlier discussion at

the meeting, the school board

Trapped between different

layers of impermeable rock, natural gas is released when said rock is broke by pumping high-pressurized chemically treated water into the ground while searching for oil, the process termed “fracking” for the way it fractures rocks to reach black gold. Shifting from buses and heat over to roo_ng, the Stanley- Boyd school board also considered a $484 cosmetic touch to the school roof, which it was said served no function beyond looking nice even though no one would see it. The total cost of the roof approved Koenig to enter

into a three-year contract for natural gas prebuy, with the

price expected to rise shortly.

“It’s expected to go up,” Koenig said of the price of natual gas, a byproductof fracking.

work meanwhile, is set to be

$85,803 carried out by Custofoam, affecting three roof sections by the high school library and pool area, replacing a ballasted rock roof with white foam, much like the rest of the current Stanley campus school building.