By Dominik Lobkowicz
The scheduled delivery of a new bus to Jefferson Village School Feb. 11 could not have been much more timely as the bus it will replace broke a leaf spring within sight of the school on its run that morning.
W.C. Cressey & Son, of Kennebunk, delivered this new bus to Jefferson Village School Feb. 11. The school got approval for state reimbursement for an emergency replacement after it was found one of the buses needed $17,000 in repairs to pass inspection. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
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The 16-year-old Number 1 bus, a 1998 Blue Bird with 152,000 miles on it, was recently approved for reimbursement from the state for an emergency replacement after it was determined it would not pass inspection without $17,000 in repairs.
“She’s old, she’s tired,” said Scott Higgins, the school’s head bus driver. “It’s done well.”
The bus’s issues, at least until Feb. 11, were primarily rust issues with cross members under the body and problems with the body itself, Higgins said.
However, Tuesday morning, bus driver Dave Stanley noticed one of the amber warning lights was out during his walk-around, and when he was headed past Bond Brothers Lumber & Hardware on Route 32 near the end of his run, he heard the front right leaf spring snap.
Stanley said he knew it was something in the suspension as soon as it happened.
“Just the sound of the metal; there’s only one place,” he said.
The plan was to run the old bus through the end of the week, but Higgins said the morning run ended up being its last, and it will be parked until the town decides what to do with it.
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Scott Higgins (right), the head school bus driver for Jefferson Village School, and George Cressey, of W.C. Cressey & Son, take a look under the hood of the school’s new Thomas school bus. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
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W.C. Cressey & Son delivered the new Thomas bus to the school, and the town paid $42,287.50, half the cost of the full bus. The town had to make payments split over this school year and next in order to receive the entire reimbursement from the state.
The state, which will reimburse Jefferson $80,337 in total for the bus purchase, will make the reimbursement split over the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years, school officials have said.
Stanley, who has been driving buses for Jefferson for four years, said despite its issues, he likes the old Number 1.
Stanley pointed out a few features on the old bus he liked in particular: lower seat backs so it is easier for him to see where the kids are sitting and what they are doing, and a manually-operated handle for operating the door.
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Bus driver Dave Stanley operates the manual door opener in the old Number 1 bus on Feb. 11. The bus, already planned to be replaced, broke a front leaf spring on its run to the school that morning. The manual opener is one of the features of the old bus Stanley said he will miss. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
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The new bus has higher seat backs, and the door is pneumatically operated, which gives the driver less control, he said.
The features were not the only thing to change. The new Number 1 rolled in, shining brightly in the late morning sun, nearly spotless inside and out.
The old Number 1 had former students’ names written above the seats, colorful stickers stuck to the paint, worn leather seats, dirt on the floors – layers of evidence of the role, however small, it played in Jefferson students’ education.
Some of the kids who once rode that bus are now parents themselves, Higgins said.
“I would drive that bus forever; I like that bus,” Stanley said of the old Number 1.
