Officials with the Trigg County Board of Education remain supremely interested in the Environmental Protection Agency’s electric bus grant and its provisions — something the district qualified for in last year’s fourth quarter.
However, during last Thursday’s meeting, Superintendent Bill Thorpe noted right now is “the fact-gathering phase,” and if such a grant is accepted, electrical infrastructure solutions would be needed.
Thorpe added, however, that EPA officials are hoping districts like Trigg don’t turn down this opportunity — and a conference phone call was held at the end of last week.
The district’s Director of Operations Matt Ladd explained that while the grant does help provide busses and charging implements, the bus garage might not be the best option.
This led to open-floor discussion about the next step.
Ladd added that one of the concerns with the grant comes from the fact that while the funding makes the busses a real possibility, the technology is so new — and the process to create an appropriate utility backdrop takes time.
Trigg officials learned the district had qualified for the grant last October, worth more than $1.9 million in federal rebate incentives for the potential purchase of up to five electric school busses and their charging pre-requisites.
A submitted application had come under the advisement of Transportation Director Erin Eagleson, who said then that these vehicles could be used for trips involving students and athletes — especially in close proximity to Cadiz.
The sticker price for each bus comes in at nearly $375,000, and does require the complete decommission and strip-down of any buses replaced. The buses must be parted out, recycled, and their engine blocks drilled — never to see the road again.
Trigg County was one of 10 Kentucky school districts awarded in this first batch of incentives, which locally includes both Caldwell and Christian counties. Thorpe said their counterparts have also been taking these same “fact-gathering” steps.
