Beech Tree News Network

Congressman Brett Guthrie stopped by Morgantown last Friday to examine the school bus refurbishing program that Final Finish has been running for the last two years.

"I'm interested in economic development, creating work, and I knew this was something they were trying to do to grow their business," said Guthrie, "I just wanted to see if there was any way that I can understand what they do and if there is anyway that I can help them . . . Anything that puts people to work."

Final Finish owner Chase Ingram says that schools participating in the school bus refurbishing program can refurbish an older bus at a fraction of the price of a new one. New buses average between $80,000 and $110,000 while refurbishing averages $25,000.

"When we started this, we saw that school districts were selling buses with a little over 100,000 miles on them while the engine, transmissions, and rear-ends are rated at 400,000+ miles and they were selling these buses for scrap metal basically," said Ingram. "We can completely redo the insides, the seats, install LEDs, reflective tape, and add any new safety feature to an older bus for a fraction of the price of what a new one costs. We've put this bus refurbishing program together and we took it to the state boards and they got it approved for us to start refurbishing buses."

Retired head bus mechanic Roger McKinney, who has nearly 30 years experience working on school buses, works with Ingram on the bus refurbishing program at Final Finish.

"It's going to save money all the way around," said McKinney, "It's a great program for school systems."

Guthrie represents Butler County in Kentucky's Second Congressional District in the U. S. House of Representatives. He serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the subcommittes of health; communications and technology; commerce, manufacturing, and trade.