This photo shows a safety arm which is deployed in front of a parked school bus. (Photo by Wikipedia.org)
WESTFIELD – The City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to authorize the School Department to enter into a five-year contract for school bus services with Lecrenski Brothers, Inc. in Russell, Mass.
During his briefing prior to the City Council meeting, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said the School Department will save considerable money with a five-year contract. He said the last contract was for three years, with two one-year options.
Ron Rix, Westfield Public Schools Director of Technology and Business Services, said during the briefing that the school district will save $175,000 a year over the five years.
After the meeting Rix said the savings resulted from a restructuring of the transportation services. The district was able to reduce by six buses, going from 35 to 29 through restructuring and consolidation. He said most of the changes were at the high school level, where there was low ridership.
The new contract maximizes the ridership while not oversubscribing, Rix said, knowing that not all high school students will choose to ride the bus. He said if they hadn’t restructured, the cost of the contract would have increased by $330,000 over the five years, so the actual savings for the district is $1.5 million.
“We had two very competitive bids,” Rix said. Five bids in all were taken out, and two submitted for the contract, from Lecrenski Bros. and Five Star Transportation. He said it also helped that fuel costs were low. “There will be adjustments (for fuel) in the contract, but it was a good time to go out,” Rix said.
During the meeting, Ward 2 Councilor Ralph J. Figy made a motion to take under immediate consideration approval of the resolution to enter into a five-year contract.
“This is a time sensitive matter. The School Committee has already approved it,” Figy said.
At-large Council Dan Allie said that he and At-large Councilor David Flaherty had met with Rix and Westfield Public School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion about the contract.
“We were both concerned about being locked into a five-year contract,” Allie said. He said Rix assured them that he has the flexibility to make changes.
“He seems to feel the contract is going to give him the freedom and savings,” Allie said.
“The School Committee didn’t go into this lightly,” Figy said. He said it was thoroughly investigated by the School Committee, Rix and District Transportation Director Pamela Kotarski.
“As liaison, I feel they did a thorough job and came up with a pretty good contract,” Figy added.
