Adams school gets new bus with seatbelts

OZARK — Officials said a community’s strength and a school’s dedication to service is making it easier — and safer — for more than 120 people who travel back and forth on school buses.

Through some allotted funding, community donations and a lease-to-own financing agreement with a local bank, Vivian B. Adams School purchased eight new Thomas model buses at $90,000 each. The buses are equipped with seatbelts and shoulder straps, cameras, wheelchair accessibility, LED lights and emergency provisions, like a panic button.

School director David Sprayberry said the new buses will replace some of the school’s 12 older buses, which carried a cumulative 2.5 million miles on them from traveling throughout six counties.

“Some of our buses were reaching the point where they could not pass a state inspection. By the community coming together with donations — individuals, municipalities, county commission, organizations — we were able to secure our transportation for what I think will be the next 10 years,” Sprayberry said.

“You can have all the services in the world, but if you have no way to get consumers here and take advantage of those, then I believe those services are rendered useless. So those donations were and will still be essential to us paying the bill.”

Joe Adams, a member of the Mental Retardation Board of Dale County, said the school had at one point purchased one bus a year with funding.

School transportation director Mickey Outlaw said the quality of the news buses was better than the school had before.

He said safety features, including a No Child Left Behind mechanism that requires a bus driver to press a button in the back of the bus before exiting to assure all riders are off, were technology that served both the driver and consumer.

Parent Bill Kamerer said he could appreciate the feature, as well as the seat belts.

“My daughter Amber is an avid seat belt wearer anyway, so it makes me feel more comfortable as a parent to know that she’s safe on her bus,” he said.