Two of the contractors interested in serving the transportation needs of Pottsville Area School District recently submitted new offers to the district, Stephen C. Curran, the district’s business manager, said Thursday.
The district is still in negotiations with the contractors, and the matter was discussed at an early morning meeting of the school board’s ad-hoc transportation committee, which was held at the Howard S. Fernsler Academic Center, Curran said.
When the school board received bids from Durham School Services, Warrenville, Ill., and Krapf School Bus, West Chester, in March, Curran said both contracts were too high, and negotiations with both firms began.
On March 28, Durham offered to buy the district’s current fleet of buses for $392,000.
Curran said the district has 20 buses: 17 that can fit 72 passengers, two that can transport 48 people, one mini-bus for 27 passengers and 11 vans capable of carrying different numbers of passengers.
Since then, Durham has bumped up that offer to $440,000, according to figures provided by Curran.
On March 28, Durham offered a five-year contract and the “base bid” and the proposed cost for each year of service would be: 2016-17, $1,672,819; 2017-18, $1,723,017; 2018-19, $1,774,687; 2019-20, $1,827,905; and 2020-21, $1,882,741, according to figures provided by Curran.
In an updated bid provided recently, Durham offered the following rates in the five-year contract: 2016-17, $1,440,503; 2017-18, $1,483,718.09; 2018-19, $1,528,229.63; 2019-20, $1,574,076.52; and 2020-21, $1,621,298.82, according to figures provided by Curran.
Initially, Krapf offered to buy the fleet for $483,600. Krapf offered a five-year contract and the “base bid” and the proposed cost for each year of service would be: 2016-17, $1,301,957; 2017-18, $1,344,270; 2018-19, $1,381,238; 2019-20, $1,419,222; and 2020-21, $1,458,250, according to figures provided by Curran.
Curran said Thursday he was still in the process of reviewing Krapf’s latest offer and had questions for the firm.