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Granby, Mo. —
Although the district’s high school bus barn collapsed, East Newton R-6 bus routes will not suffer.
Early Friday afternoon, the roof twisted and wooden trusses fell atop eight of the nine buses parked in the barn. The glass ventilation hatch or sun-roof on one of the buses was damaged when a 2 by 4 slammed through it, but most of the other damage was cosmetic. No one was in the barn when the structure broke apart, said East Newton Superintendent Todd McCrakin and all the vehicles will be useable — as soon as they are extracted from the building.
“Buses still would have been able to run,” McCrakin said.
With fewer buses, some would have had to take alternate routes and pickup times may have been adjusted, but they could have made it work, he said. The district has bus barns at each campus — Granby and Triway — but the high school barn was the largest.
On Tuesday, a crew with Larry Snyder Construction was on the scene to dismantle the sagging building and save the remaining buses. Workers shoveled snow off the damaged roof, pulled off the metal roofing and lifted up the damaged structure to back out the trapped buses one at a time. By mid-afternoon they had freed a couple of buses. Eight were affected by the structure’s collapse.
The collapsed structure was built in the early 1970s, approximately 1973, McCrakin said. A gifted and talented classroom at the west end of the barn will stay and the east end bus bay will also remain untouched. Workers cut the two ends free from the rest of the building which will be torn down. There is no timeframe yet on the rebuilding process, he said.
“It’s not a situation where we have to have that structure,” McCrakin said. “We can take our time to rebuild that.”
He hopes to resume school soon, but getting buses stuck on rural roads is still an issue.
“It’s the farm roads that a lot of our buses go down,” McCrakin explained. “We can go down them, but we are not able to turn the bus around to get out.
“We’re just as anxious as parents are to get back to school. The road conditions are just not cooperating with us as far as that goes.”
Although the district’s high school bus barn collapsed, East Newton R-6 bus routes will not suffer.
Early Friday afternoon, the roof twisted and wooden trusses fell atop eight of the nine buses parked in the barn. The glass ventilation hatch or sun-roof on one of the buses was damaged when a 2 by 4 slammed through it, but most of the other damage was cosmetic. No one was in the barn when the structure broke apart, said East Newton Superintendent Todd McCrakin and all the vehicles will be useable — as soon as they are extracted from the building.
“Buses still would have been able to run,” McCrakin said.
With fewer buses, some would have had to take alternate routes and pickup times may have been adjusted, but they could have made it work, he said. The district has bus barns at each campus — Granby and Triway — but the high school barn was the largest.
On Tuesday, a crew with Larry Snyder Construction was on the scene to dismantle the sagging building and save the remaining buses. Workers shoveled snow off the damaged roof, pulled off the metal roofing and lifted up the damaged structure to back out the trapped buses one at a time. By mid-afternoon they had freed a couple of buses. Eight were affected by the structure’s collapse.
The collapsed structure was built in the early 1970s, approximately 1973, McCrakin said. A gifted and talented classroom at the west end of the barn will stay and the east end bus bay will also remain untouched. Workers cut the two ends free from the rest of the building which will be torn down. There is no timeframe yet on the rebuilding process, he said.
“It’s not a situation where we have to have that structure,” McCrakin said. “We can take our time to rebuild that.”
He hopes to resume school soon, but getting buses stuck on rural roads is still an issue.
“It’s the farm roads that a lot of our buses go down,” McCrakin explained. “We can go down them, but we are not able to turn the bus around to get out.
“We’re just as anxious as parents are to get back to school. The road conditions are just not cooperating with us as far as that goes.”
