North Royalton City Schools applied for a grant last fall from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to assist in the replacement of two school buses for next school year. The district’s grant was one of 29 that were awarded state-wide. North Royalton City Schools will receive $178,418.00 to assist in the replacement of four 2005 school buses with four new diesel-powered school buses. Each bus costs approximately $90,000 so with the grant, the district will be able to purchase two of the four that need to be replaced. Through the Ohio Diesel Emission Reduction Grant Program, the Ohio EPA estimates the monies awarded for these new buses will achieve an estimated annual emission reduction of more than 136 tons of air pollutants in Ohio counties that do not meet or are struggling to meet federal air quality standards.
In 2009, the district was awarded a Diesel Emission Reduction Grant for the amount of $46,171 for the addition of catalytic converters on a number of our buses. This project greatly reduced emissions coming from our buses that affect students, staff members, and residents of our city. In 2011, the district was awarded another Diesel Emission Reduction Grant in the amount of $86,133 for the installation of 23 bus pre-heaters. This grant helped clean up bus exhaust emissions and saved the district money by reducing the amount of fuel used on cold morning start-ups.
Every year since 2009, the district has applied for state and federal Diesel Emission Reduction Grants for the replacement of older, less efficient buses with new buses that would also improve its overall fleet exhaust emissions. These efforts have been unsuccessful until now. “We contacted institutions that have received grants for buses, as well as the EPA to ask what exactly they were looking for in awarding grants,” said Transportation Supervisor Joe Marcinowski. “They said they were looking for the largest air quality improvement for the dollars awarded. In the past, we would offer to remove our four oldest buses from service and ask for four new replacement buses. Our research indicated the EPA realizes the average age of school buses pulled from service is 15 years. By offering our oldest buses, they were replacing buses that were not going to be on the road much longer anyway. In our latest grant proposal, we offered to remove four 2005 buses that had four or five more years of service life. We also offered a 50% in kind match which meant we would purchase four replacement buses but we were only asking that two of those be subsidized with grant money. We are pleased that we were awarded this sizeable grant toward the replacement of these new school buses.”
“Our district does everything we can to apply for grants, like this one, to lessen the financial burden placed on our taxpayers,” said Superintendent Greg Gurka, North Royalton City Schools. “I want to thank Transportation Supervisor Joe Marcinowski and Mechanic Supervisor Jon Capadona for their efforts and persistence in securing these funds for our district.”