NEWS-TIMES WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 | Vol. 113, No. 6 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Living: Magical ending for Oak Harbor grad. A8
It’s all over but the melting By NATHAN WHALEN Staff reporter
Rebecca Olson/Whidbey News-Times
Oak Harbor School District director of transportation Francis Bagarella shows the pre-heaters recently installed under school buses to warm bus engines before they are started each morning.
Happiness for Oak Harbor bus drivers is a warm motor By REBECCA OLSON Staff reporter
Cold mornings will no longer eat up gallons of diesel fuel from idling buses thanks to a Department of Ecology grant that paid for “pre-heaters” for every school bus in the Oak Harbor School District. The pre-heaters use timers to warm bus engines before they are started, which eliminates the need for idling. The state Department of Ecology awarded a $156,000 grant, which covered the cost of each $3,600 unit plus installation costs for 40 buses, according to Francis Bagarella, Oak Harbor School District director of transportation. “We want to reduce our emissions, that was our big concern,” Bagarella said. With the pre-heaters, there will be no more burst of black and white smoke that comes with starting a cold diesel engine, Bagarella said.
It takes 15 minutes for the pre-heater to warm the motor. While the pre-heaters use diesel fuel, they can run for hours before using one gallon, whereas if the bus has to be kept running, “it takes no time at all to go through gallons of diesel fuel,” Bagarella said. “It keeps everything in a state of readiness so you’re ready to go,” Bagarella said. The timer is set to heat the bus before the driver gets onboard and it can be set to only heat certain days of the week. A button on the dashboard makes it easy for drivers to turn the heater on and off. “By the time the driver gets in, the windows are all defrosted,” Bagarella said. Bagarella said he’s heard positive feedback from the drivers. They enjoy getting into warm buses in the morning, since temperatures are dipping into the 30s, and they appreciate the heater on field trips, especially when taking groups
skiing, because the driver can stay warm without starting the engine. “It’s really a nice little system,” Bagarella said. Bagarella signed up to be alerted for any possible grant money when he attended a conference about green energy for buses. He was contacted about the Clean Diesel Grant, which is through Ecology’s Air Quality Program. Two weeks after sending in the application, transportation was awarded the grant. “The grant process wasn’t too challenging,” Bagarella said. Thermo King Northwest, Inc. of Kent installed the preheaters at no cost to the district. Anacortes, Everett and Mukilteo school districts received similar grants, Bagarella said. “We’re always looking out for grants that will make our buses cleaner,” he said.
Whidbey Islanders don’t traditionally dig out from the snow, they just wait for the rain to melt it away. It was a long wait, but melting started yesterday after a week of snow and ice covering roads and trees, and it’s in full swing today as weather prognosticators anticipate rain with the temperature shooting up to 44 degrees in Oak Harbor. Six days’ worth of snow coupled with temperatures that hovered in the 20s crippled traffic on Whidbey Island and gave students an unexpected week off from school. Snow started falling in the Puget Sound region Jan. 7 and continued much of the week. The worst weather conditions came Wednesday as islanders awakened to roads that resembled sheets of ice from Oak Harbor to Clinton. The mercury started rising Friday and the snow should soon disappear. With the snow melting and the rain continuing, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Western Washington, including Island County, from Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon. Getting out of driveways and neighborhoods was the biggest problem for islanders, as drivers lucky enough to reach Highways 20 and 525 found conditions manageable if they drove at 35
Justin Burnett/Whidbey News-Times
Admiral’s Cove resident John Schreiber rides his bicycle up N. Main Street in Coupeville while on his way to work Friday. mph or less as Washington State Department of Transportation snow plows had done their job. It appears fewer snowrelated accidents took place on Whidbey Island when compared to previous snow storms. Firefighters from North and Central Whidbey Island each responded to three car accidents during the week and a State Patrol trooper remarked that the call volume was lighter during the storm week. Chad Michael, battalion chief for Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue, said the
biggest challenge was responding to medical calls. He said all of the engines in the stations were chained up, but the snow and poor weather conditions delayed response times. Businesses generally stayed open on North Whidbey Island, especially ones that can help folks deal with, or enjoy, the snow. “We’re out of snow shovels and sleds,” said Cheryl Wieldraayer, manager of Ace Hardware on Pioneer Way in Oak Harbor, on SEE SNOW, A4
Keystone dredging nears completion A months-long project to improve conditions at Keystone Harbor is scheduled to wrap up next week. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday will survey the results of a dredging project to see if American Construction of Tacoma has met the terms of its contract. The Corps of Engineers paid the construction com-
pany more than $800,000 to dredge the small harbor to restore its depth to 25 feet. Keystone Harbor is a difficult entry way for ferries to navigate and groundings have taken place over the years. Washington State Ferries only has three vessels capable of navigating in and out of the tiny harbor. Workers have been busy during the evenings scoop-
ing sediment from the harbor floor. That sediment is transported to the nearby park and is used to “renourish” a beach that officials say has been eroding.