NORMAN — Traditional school bus fleets are yellow, but Norman Public Schools is beginning to color its green.
The district recently received a $39,000 grant from the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments to purchase a 29-seat, natural gas-fueled mini bus.
This means the district will pay at most about $11,000 for the bus, which will be ordered April 1, with an arrival date 12 to 16 weeks following, said Roger Brown, assistant superintendent of Administrative Services.
“This is something we’ve been talking about for awhile. ... We decided it was time to stop talking about it and actually do something,” said Brown, who admitted during Monday’s board of education meeting to recently stopping a UPS truck in his neighborhood to query the driver’s opinion of compressed natural gas vehicles.
Brown said the bus will be used on shorter distance bus routes and for shuttling students to activities.
“We’re excited to have a CNG on the way,” said Brown, who recently toured CNG fleets at the University of Oklahoma and the city of Norman, whose fleet includes the city’s sanitation vehicles and a recently purchased lawnmower.
Mike White, superintendent of the city of Norman’s fleet, said construction of the city’s CNG filling station near Goodard Avenue and Highway 77 will begin in June and should be completed by September or October.
He said the station will be open to the public from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will be open 24 hours for local fleets such as the city’s and Norman Public Schools’.
“We can get the CNG vehicle, but now we need to get the CNG,” Brown said of the filling station.
Natural gas vehicles help reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign oil and also are quieter to run, said White, noting noise reduction in neighborhoods when city sanitation vehicles make their weekly routes.
Board member Don Shandy, an environmental lawyer who described the topic as “near and dear to him professionally,” said natural gas is also cheaper.
White agreed, noting diesel costs of $3.50 per gallon and climbing. Brown said the district has been averaging $2.80 per gallon on its bus fleet.
“This is a fuel that’s in our backyard,” White said.
Brown echoed him, saying, “One day our grandkids and great grandkids are going to be asking us about petroleum, saying ‘What’s that?’”
Nanette Light 366-3541 nlight@normantranscript.com
