By ROBERT A. DEFRANK

Times Leader Staff Writer

MARTINS FERRY — The Martins Ferry City School District has upgraded its bus fleet with three new vehicles that should help the system realize savings in maintenance and other costs by using propane rather than diesel fuel.

The purchases were made in conjunction with the Qualified Zone Academy Bond Loan awarded to the school district last year. Superintendent Dirk Fitch noted that as part of the QZAB Loan, public school districts could purchase new or refit older systems, including transportation vehicles, with higher efficiency and lower emissions units.

Fitch credited the district’s transportation supervisor, Randall Reasbeck, as being instrumental in the process of obtaining the buses. Reasbeck said the chief difference between the new and old vehicles is the reduced emissions of propane, since it is a cleaner-burning fuel.

“The reason we went into propane is because of the emissions,” he said.

“Complying with the Clean Air Act has become a big burden of maintenance and expense,” he said. “There’s hardly any emissions because propane is a clean-burning engine. It’s a bit of a savings in maintenance costs, emissions, down time — the oil changes are a lot cheaper.”

He added that this is the source of the savings, while the propane buses will travel about one less mile per gallon.

“They perform better than the diesel engine. You’re going to get less miles per gallon out of the propane, but in the long run the cheaper maintenance is what we’re going after.”

He noted that a diesel bus of the same size calls for 27 quarts of oil, while a propane-powered bus only demands seven quarts.

“So there’s a big savings right there,” he said, adding that as more buses wear out, the district will consider replacing them with propane buses as these three replacements were made.

Fitch noted each bus was about $80,000 and should have a life of about 15 years. The QZAB is a 15-year loan.

“We were excited. Our fleet was getting old. We needed some new buses, so we decided to go through the propane,” he said.

In December of 2015 the district purchased one propane-fueled bus with the QZAB loan. Fitch said the district was pleased with the results. The board added two more propane buses to the fleet in June 2016. In today’s market, the board is paying about $1 less per gallon for propane than for diesel.

“The school administration and transportation staff believe they are on the right track with the purchase. The district has added three low-cost maintenance buses to the fleet and use clean burning fuel that is good for the environment.” he said.

Fitch noted that propane-fueled school buses are not new to the district. During the fuel crisis of of the 1970s and ’80s the district converted five gas-powered buses to propane. Fitch noted the conversion was successful and saw no difficulties. In the middle 1980s, a 66-passenger school bus was only available with a diesel-fueled engine. These types of buses always produced large amounts of black smoke, he said.

“In 1983 you could no longer buy gasoline buses. You could only buy diesel,” Reasbeck said.

The Clean Air Act forced diesel manufacturers to comply by installing electronic and emission controls in 1996. In 2003, 2008, 2012 and 2015 diesel manufacturers had to add even more emission controls to comply with government regulations.