Submitted file photo The Bemus Point community has voted against allowing the school district to move forward with a Bond Anticipation Note which would allow them to continue with the 2023 EPA Rebate Award to begin purchasing electric buses.

BEMUS POINT — The Bemus Point Central School District is left with decisions to make after the community did not approve a Bond Anticipation Note to be able to move forward with the EPA rebate award for the purchase of two electric buses.

The results of Thursday night’s vote came back with 143 votes against the bond anticipation note and 132 in favor.

All school districts in New York state are required to begin purchasing only electric buses by 2027 and to have an all electric fleet by 2035. Bemus Point is not the first school district in the state to have the community vote against buying any electric buses, with multiple Central New York schools voting against purchases as part of their budget back in the spring.

According to the state, the change will reduce emissions that can harm kids’ health and contribute to pollution and climate change, and removing each school bus from the road is equivalent to taking four cars off the streets, along with the emissions from those cars.

For Bemus Point, the work to begin switching came after the school was awarded a 2023 EPA Rebate Award as a part of the Clean School Bus Program. The 2023 EPA Clean School Bus Rebate Award is a federal award that comes in the form of $400,000 all together, so $200,000 per bus. Other financial incentives the district would be able to get with the award includes a NYSBIP Voucher, which allows for $147,000 per bus, a NYSBIP Rebate which gives $55,000 per charger, the Federal Tax Program which gives $40,000 per bus and to have National Grid cover 90% of costs to upgrade the bus garage for the entire electric fleet. With all of these incentives, the purchasing of the buses would be tax neutral.

The district needs to let the EPA know they will be moving forward with the grant by Nov 29, but in order to move forward needed the community to pass the vote allowing for the Bond Anticipation Note, or BAN. The BAN would have allowed for coverage of the local share of the project, and now that the community has voted no, Superintendent Joseph Reyda said the district has to discuss what might come next.

“The board will be discussing its next steps at the Sept 9 board meeting,” Reyda said. “Every school district has to start purchasing electric school buses starting in 2027. The board is going to have to decide how it wants to move forward without access to financial incentives.”

Without the ability to move forward with the rebate award after the vote, the district will potentially look for an extension, but if there is none possible they will lose any financial incentive they could have gotten with the award, though they are still facing the mandate along with the rest of NYS schools to begin purchasing electric buses no matter what in the near future.

“We’re going to be reviewing the rebate award to determine if there is any way to apply for an extension,” Reyda said. “If this is not possible, the district will lose the $800,000 in incentives to purchase two electric school buses and will not be eligible to have National Grid pay for 90% of the project costs to upgrade the bus garage. It’s unfortunate, but all of these costs will fall to the resident taxpayers.”

Reyda said even though they may lose the rebate award now, the district will continue to work to do whatever they can to help with the future costs of purchasing electric buses by the mandated time.

“We are going to continue to pursue any available financial incentives to help defray the costs of electric school buses,” Reyda said. “We owe it to all of our district residents to continue to be as fiscally responsible as we can.”