Board approves buying new and used buses as district takes ownership of fleet from contractor

The Willoughby Eastlake board approved two related items July 14: reimbursement for seven new buses the contractor Peterman ordered and the purchase of a used bus fleet that Peterman formerly operated.

Treasurer Mr. Turnello described the transaction. He said Peterman purchased seven new buses (three with wheelchair lifts) that arrived recently and that the district would reimburse Peterman for those vehicles so the district becomes the owner of the physical buses while operations remain under contract. Turnello said purchasing ownership of the buses is intended to let the district bid out operations separately in the future and retain control of fleet purchase timing.

On the used fleet, the board had previously approved an independent appraisal of 75 buses Peterman had valued at about $4,533,000. After the appraisal and the removal of six buses from service, the negotiated orderly-liquidation value for 69 buses was $3,768,000; Turnello said that figure was agreed with Peterman. He explained that roughly 15 buses retired from the active fleet this year and seven replacements arrived after approximately a one-year order-to-delivery cycle.

Turnello described potential savings: shifting ownership reduces the annual operations payment to Peterman by an estimated amount (the presentation cited a possible annual savings "about $1 million" before factoring in vehicle purchase costs), and net savings in typical years might be in the low hundreds of thousands depending on replacement cadence. He cautioned that fleet purchase timing will continue to affect year-to-year costs; the board approved both the new-bus reimbursement and the used-bus purchase by unanimous vote (4–0).

No changes were made at the meeting to the contractor's responsibility for day-to-day bus operations under the existing service contract.