Today is the first day of school in Wolfe County and some students will be riding to and from school in the commonwealth’s first electric school bus. The district will have a total of four electric buses for the school year and the first one is hitting the streets today.
Kenny Bell is the Wolfe County Schools superintendent. He said they should help save money when it comes to fuel.
“If you’re looking at over $400 for one tank of gas, if you fill up the electric charge, its about $20. You need to do that about three times to equal what you would get about the same milage, so you’re looking at $60 vs $400 to go the same number of miles.”
Bell says the new electric vehicle has a 138-mile range. He says it will be able to cover the routes needed in Wolfe County but would not be used for field trips.
Bell said there were initially some concerns about whether the electric buses could handle the eastern Kentucky roads.
“We looked into other states that had similar terrains and had some up and down hills and things of the nature and would get the same temperature or colder than here. We were able to determine that it was not an issue and that other states had implemented these school buses already.”
Wolfe County was able to purchase the buses using two grants. One covered the cost of all three, the other allowed the school district to buy an electric bus at the cost of a diesel one.
The district will soon be joined by another in eastern Kentucky. Carter County schools will be receiving 23 electric school buses this fall.
** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, fact-based journalism. Monthly sustaining donors are the top source of funding for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation.
