The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round…

Very Quietly and Cleanly

On Tuesday, May 30, the Walla Walla School District introduced its first electric school bus to the community, becoming the first school district in eastern Washington to launch an electric fleet, and Columbia REA was there…a year earlier.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony at the School District Transportation Center was merely the culmination of a project within a project for Bryan Maas, Columbia REA engineer in charge of figuring out how to run electrical service to the bus yard to power the charging stations.

“About a year ago, we brought electricity to a new subdivision off of Myra Road, to the south,” recalls Bryan.

“We actually had to cross School District property. At that time, the school district asked us if we had the ability to serve the transportation center, so I designed some infrastructure that would allow us to run a line to where it would eventually need to be. Soon after, when the decision to purchase the buses was announced, we were already in a good position.”

“We also know that this isn’t where this project is going to end,” adds Bryan. The technology is ever-improving, but we can’t really see into the future to know where the EV charging technology will take us.

“We have engineered this project to accommodate expansion to virtually any part of the transportation center, so we won’t have to dig up the parking lot again like we did this time…during the middle of the school year, which was probably the most challenging part of this job,” Bryan says with a slight wince and a smile.

Walla Walla Public Schools Superintendent Wade Smith was all smiles at the ribbon-cutting.

“We felt strongly that if we could find a partner to assist in getting the necessary power to the site, this could be the seed money to start the conversion of our fleet to a safer, cleaner, electric-powered plant without relying on local taxpayers,” Wade shared. “We reached out to our local electric service provider, Columbia REA, and were immediately met with a ‘let’s get this done’ attitude from everyone there.”

As for the mild hoopla and added attention surrounding this project, Bryan doesn’t mind a bit.

“This was a well-executed job. The school was a perfect partner to work with, and it was nice to have kind of a mini-showcase to let people see what we’re capable of and what we do all the time. Most of the time this happens out of sight, it was fun to let people see that this is what success for us looks like. That aspect of it was nice.”