If you thought you’d heard the last of the problems with the mechanics’ bay, think again. I’d like to update everyone on where we are with this issue. It was a year ago in May that our proposition for an addition to the bus garage was defeated at our public vote.
Since that time, we have worked hard to maintain our buses, pass our NYS inspections and of course, to keep our children safe. Brian Hinman and Amos Cowen have done an excellent job of focusing on preparing our buses for NYS inspection and our passing rate has increased significantly. We are carefully considering our preventative maintenance, completing all of the work that we can do in house and working with J&R Auto Repair in Olean for all of the work we can’t do here without a lift. Very recently, J&R has become the site we’ve moved to for our NYS inspections and they are helping us to prepare for those inspections. A huge thank you to Cattaraugus Little Valley district for the time and space they allocated to us over the past year to have our inspections conducted there. The move to J&R allows us more opportunity to have the pre-inspection work done that we can’t get done here.
Do we still need a bus mechanics bay with an approved lift? Yes. It’s more cost effective for our own mechanics to prepare our buses here than to pay to transport them to Olean and then to pay for the work that J&R has to complete that we can’t.
What are we planning to do about it? We committed to study our operation without the lift, comparing the costs of taking the work we can’t do ourselves elsewhere and most important, to improving our NYS inspection passing rate.
We’re also working with a new architectural firm, Habiterra, on our NYS required 5 year facilities plan. It is our hope that we will work with them to develop an addition that is as affordable as possible to our taxpayers. With all of the cuts the State is making right now, there is still no indication that they will reduce their commitment to capital projects.
Will the proposition for an addition to the bus garage come up again? It’s likely but we have no definite project or time table in place at this time. It is a priority for us in our NYS required 5 year facilities plan. We want to take the time to look at our facilities as a whole and to identify any other items that may need our attention, like the roof we need on part of the high school building or pursuing green initiatives and/or our own fuel source. We also continue to think about our playing fields, our limitations to parking and our maintenance of the beautiful facilities we have now.