In Shelton, they decided to lay some cash up front, to save money on gas down the road.
Mayor Marc Lauretti, the Shelton Board of Education, and the Board of Aldermen made the deal happen and the city has recently rolled out a fleet of 60 new propane powered school buses.
“We were looking at the possibility of renewing a bus contract and we found out about these state of the art propane buses, “ said Freeman Burr, the Superintendent of Shelton Schools, “ ultimately the city decided they wanted to invest in buses — it just seemed like the right thing to.”
The buses have the same loud yellow paint but their green technology is expected to save the city as much as $150,000 to $200,000 a year in fuel savings.
Built by the Blue Bird company in Georgia, the city spent upwards of $5 million on their new fleet.
The Shelton school district has just over 5,200 students and, they say, all 60 of the buses in the new fleet will be ready to hit the streets when school starts on September 3.