Comments on: Where Have All The Busses Gone?

By: Randy Barnack

Randy Barnack — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:48:17 +0000

There are two old busses stored at the boise airport fire training facility. They will be used for fire extrication training. There are also old sections of concrete bridge stored there to be used for building collapse rescue training. From a technical rescue perspective having these available for training is invaluable. Please remember there is a back story to everything. It would be nice if people investigated fully and got the true story before forming opinions.

EDITOR NOTE–Randy, afraid we don’t understand your point. No one questions the value of using the buses for police and fire training. The issue is that public property with legal titles was disposed of without proper transfer of title, sale, etc. Both chiefs agree the management staffs should have been informed of the property acquisition. One of those five buses ended up with a mechanic for the Transit agency. We hope firemen don’t get to take home old fire trucks removed from service.

By: cloudnine

cloudnine — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:15:08 +0000

I believe I know where they are:

Call 1-800-Partridge Family or 1-800-“THE WHO”.

By: Rod in SE Boise

Rod in SE Boise — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:27:41 +0000

So, a city bus is now sitting in someones back yard in Emmett? Maybe he is using it as a rental. Bet the neighbors just love that.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:32:30 +0000

Sounds like they’re setting themselves up for some nice lawsuits if the give-away bus explodes later and cooks a few people.
Still, if one made it to Emmett without blowing up, I’d like to have the next one they want to give away; it’s make a great storage shed, or a playhouse, or …

An aside: Re your headline: “Where have all the busses gone?”
That would be more appropriate in a few days (on Valentine’s Day), since “busses” is the plural of “buss,” which is a synonym for “kiss.”
The plural of “bus” is “buses.”

Actually, you got it right once in the body copy, but wrong a few other times (I say after a quick skim of the story).

Tsk! Tsk! 🙂

EDITOR NOTE–Gordon, I looked this one up in advance. BOTH are correct, but we don’t have a style book…I will try to settle on the single S version. Did you like the SUBSTANCE of the post?

By: slim jim

slim jim — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:02:47 +0000

will there be consequences?
I have become convinced that there is no accountability in the government (and those agencies) because there are little to no consequences for those people.

How do we, the taxpayers, hold them accountable when our elected officials do not see any reason to answer to us, the taxpayers?

Sure, James, what you say makes sense, but folks need permission or at least leave a paper trail which can be followed so that everyone will know what they are doing. It looks more up and up. After all, there are people sliding out of living in a house… perhaps some of them because they are not able to pay their property taxes on their homes and a bus may look a bit better to live in than under the bridge or in the community house.
Give the buses away as homes!!

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:41:20 +0000

So this is the new standard of ethics that the Mayor and City Council promised during the last election? Pretty sad.

By: ericn1300

ericn1300 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:25:43 +0000

“EDITOR NOTE–Eric, all well and good, but BOISE NEVER GOT THE BUSSES! There are 4 busses unaccounted for.”

When I said “As you noted those buses had a tremendous value as a tool for fire and police department training programs” you should have noticed I was in complete agreement with you. Those missing buses need to be accounted for and their value reimbursed to the taxpayers even if the value is just for training

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:12:53 +0000

I can understand not wanting to use a bus when it could be a crematorium for the passengers. The parts I don’t get are the manufacturer liability issues and the give away deal. Anyone with any exposure to public agencies knows the deal on disposal of public or quasi-public property.

By: James

James — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:04:48 +0000

I don’t want to set any precedent for defending bureaucrats here, but its probably within the realm of possibility that giving an exploding bus away is cheaper than trying to find someone to buy an exploding bus. Or continuing to pay to insure an exploding bus.

By: ericn1300

ericn1300 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:45:01 +0000

As you noted those buses had a tremendous value as a tool for fire and police department training programs. You should go by and take a look at the skeleton of a school bus they have at the Meridian School District’s maintenance yard.

That poor old bus has been used for training for years. First while still intact for police training then the fire department got a hold of it, torched it and wrenched on it with the jaws of life. It’s still used for training but they had to weld a metal frame over it to keep it safe to enter.

EDITOR NOTE–Eric, all well and good, but BOISE NEVER GOT THE BUSSES! There are 4 busses unaccounted for.