Ask The Answer Person: Your bus barn questions and answers

(Our readers continue to ask questions about the proposed Decorah School District bus barn project.  Here are two about private school bus companies: "Has there been any talk about the Decorah/ North Winneshiek schools just getting out of the student transportation business? Spending nearly 2 million dollars on a non-educational issue raises questions about the best use of money.  Many Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin school districts outsource student transportation, utilizing money for education." And the second: "With the high cost of a new bus barn, has anyone ever researched the possibility of a privately owned bus transportation system? There are a lot of these types of bus transportation systems used in Minnesota school districts."):
 
The Answer Person says:  "Even if an agreement with a private bus transportation company was a success, that company would still need to have a bus barn to store the buses, as well as tires and other parts, to provide room for offices and a drivers meeting area, and to have a service department to do service or repair work and wash the buses.  Those costs would then be passed along in the contract with a school district, meaning there might not be any difference in costs—or a private company might even be more expensive.  And if the private bus company goes broke and the school district has to suddenly purchase a new fleet of buses, that would be cost prohibitive."
 
(Another reader asks: "Has anyone looked into buying the current bus barn location and expanding into the hillside behind it?"):
 
The Answer Person says: "That has also been discussed.  A new bus barn would need four acres, according to school district officials.  The current bus barn property on College Drive is 1-1/2 acres.  It would be expensive—probably cost prohibitive—to remove rock from another 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 acres.  A large retaining wall might be necessary, which would require more engineering and would push the project cost much higher.  Finally, the school district can service and repair 65-passenger buses in the current facility, but all recently-purchased buses are now 77-passenger and all activity buses are 84-passenger.  Those buses won't even fit into the facility for service and repair unless the doors can remain open, which is a limitation for nearly half the year.
 
In short, there are no easy answers to this situation."