By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The USD 431 Board of Education was presented with several options to replace one of the district's activity buses. At Monday's meeting, Superintendent Patrick Crowdis presented bids from three dealers, including a pair of buses from Midwest Bus.
"It intrigues me, the possibility of purchasing these buses," he said. "Purchasing these two at less than the price of the Coachmaster bus; we would have to rearrange a couple of things at the bus barn but we could park both of them inside. That would give us a spare if something mechanically were to go bad on any of our activity buses."
The district will replace a bus that has nearly half a million miles and has had electrical issues. Both of the buses from Midwest can seat up to 44 passengers, eight fewer than the district's most recent purchase. The buses will not have overhead storage but do have pleather seats and separate air conditioning units in the front and back. The used buses have 187,000 and 219,000 miles. Board Member Julia Debes was comforted knowing the district put about 16,000 miles on each of its activity buses this year.
"Knowing the mileage per year," she said, "those Midwest buses, as long as their maintenance records check out, seem like they'd be good options as long as it's not an issue that football or some of the larger sports have to take two buses and that doesn't cause a ripple effect."
The district also received bids from Kansas Truck Equipment Company and Coach Master's. A new bus from Kansas Truck would take 12-16 months to arrive. The board voted to purchase the two buses from Midwest for $119,000, contingent on satisfactory maintenance records.