James Williams gives school board update on bus garage fire

At Monday’s work/study session of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, Building and Grounds Director James Williams gave a detailed report on what the district is doing to recover from the bus garage fire last November.
He said they hope to have a functioning garage again before the new school year.
Williams said the district lost four vehicles, including a big dump truck. It had a value of $95,000 to replace it and the district got $72,000 from the insurance company. He said they are looking at other options, like getting a smaller dump truck.
Two vans have been replaced, but the 2000 transportation service vehicle was almost worthless and insurance paid nothing.
School supt. Van Tassel said the insurance company claimed that vehicle was not covered because the policy was not updated the way the company wanted it. He said that vehicle was sent out to jump-start buses instead of sending out costly tow trucks.
He said the insurance company offered $62,000 for the dump truck, “take it or leave it,” and the district negotiated and got $10,000 more.
“I don’t like to roll around in the mud, but … He played good cop. I played bad cop,” Van Tassel said of Williams. “They did right by us ultimately.”
Williams said three other vans damaged by the fire were parked behind the building. They were repaired and are back in operation.
Van Tassel said the service vehicle will be a cost to the district.
Williams said the loss on the building is $800,000, which includes tools for maintenance and mechanics, mowers, welders, bus and building supplies. There were 100,000 items listed for the adjustor on about 100 pages. He said they are getting close to hearing from the insurance company after it asked for more information on the hoist and mowers.
“We will continue to negotiate for the full replacement cost,” Van Tassel said, adding if a mechanic owned his own tools, his own insurance would have to pay for it. He said it could be $40,000 to $60,000 for one mechanic.
“They shouldn’t have said they were his tools,” suggested board member Kathy Kovach.
Van Tassel said the district anticipates getting all its own tools replaced.
When asked how the district was taking care of its buses now, Williams said they went out and bought tools and borrowed a service truck for two months. Van Tassel said the insurance company gave the district $50,000 in the interim.
Williams said they had to purchase large bumper jacks for the buses.
Williams said it will take $900,000 to restore that building in an expedited timeline. He said they are close to starting and it will take 12 weeks to reconstruct at the same site on a new slab once all the materials are on site.
He said currently they are in the design process. He said they are replacing a pre-1970s building and there could be additional cost for code issues.
Van Tassel said the insurance company is responsible for the code issues and if the district wanted to add something – like another bathroom – the district would have to pay.
Williams said they are using a Design Build process where they pull permits, do ground work in an expedited process and award bids. Once the prefab building is in place, the design team finishes.
“We asked Davenport to do this work,” Van Tassel said, adding the insurance company has the power to choose whomever it wants to do the work, but he suggested a local firm. He said the insurance company would pay directly to Davenport since the insurance company is in charge.
Van Tassel said he expects at least comparable to what the district had or better.
Board President Brent Mikulski suggested the district step back and look at the insurance and perhaps put a rider on for the mechanics’ tools.
Van Tassel said they are doing that at the end of spring or summer and they may rebid. He estimated the company has been in place for five years and, so far, they are doing well with the fire.
In other business at the work/study session the board heard the first reading of a board policy update on bullying, to comply with state law. The second reading will be at an upcoming regular meeting.
When the Independent asked if you didn’t have to do a first reading at a regular meeting where votes could be taken, Van Tassel said they will do the second reading at a regular meeting and vote on it and that was good enough.