By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Plans for the Baldwinsville Central School District’s $24 million transportation center are taking shape. School district officials presented the first look at the new bus garage, which voters approved in a February 2016 referendum, at the Oct. 18 meeting of the Van Buren Town Board.
“This bus garage is almost identical to the transportation center in the city of Oneida,” said Jamie Rodems, assistant superintendent for management services for the BCSD.
Rodems and Assistant Transportation Supervisor Dana Nelson showed architects’ renderings of the transportation center to the town board. The district has submitted the plans to the New York State Education Department, which could take about a year to approve them. Rodems said the district is hoping to occupy the finished building in three years.
The construction of the transportation center will take up about 20 acres of the 29.8-acre property at 2810 W. Entry Road in Radisson. The bus garage will have 10 lifts, 12 bays for repairs and a compliant fueling station for diesel, gasoline and natural gas.
The front of the transportation center will contain offices, and the second floor will have space for training drivers, teachers and other district employees.
The center will also have an adjustable wash bay that can accommodate several sizes of vehicles. Rodems said the transportation could be a maintenance center for neighboring school districts or municipalities.
“It’ll be large enough to drive a highway truck through,” Rodems said. “There’s going to be computer panels so you can pick what vehicle you’re doing so the machinery in there will change in size. It’s pretty cool.”
Rodems said the bus garage accounts for about $24 million of the 2016 referendum’s $32 million capital project, which also includes a new press box and lighting at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, renovations at Baker High School and replacing the roofs at Van Buren Elementary School, Elden Elementary School and the Baldwinsville Public Library. The stadium renovations already have been completed.
As for the current bus garage, which is more than 70 years old, Rodems said buildings in the complex will be repurposed into wheelchair-accessible meeting suites, a new home for the district’s information technology and server and storage for food services.
“School districts don’t throw anything away,” he said.
In addition to visiting the Van Buren Town Board, Rodems said the district will present the plans to other neighboring entities such as the Radisson Community Association.
“I know that some people weren’t happy about us buying that piece of property, but it is what it is,” Rodems said. “I just wanted to try to be good neighbors.”
