January 12, 2000

Road Checkers a team effort

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       A small group of local residents deliberately venture out on snowy, icy roads, in the middle of the night, long before the plows come lumbering out in force. They switch off their four-wheel drives and head for the steepest grades, the sharp and winding curves and the most windswept stretches of roads the area boasts.
      Hands steady on the wheel, eyes scanning the terrain, collectively these eight drivers can make or break the day for more than 10,000 area residents.
Bus drivers on the road again and again
The Traverse City Area Public School district covers 300 square miles, includes three counties, and serves more than 8,000 students a day with its fleet of 110 buses. The district is the largest one in northern Michigan, in terms of number of students and size of the bus fleet. The 118 drivers run 69 regular routes and 20 special education routes every day, with the first bus leaving the lot at 5:30 a.m. to start the day with a junior high route.
      Each morning, it takes 3 « hours to get all children from their homes to schools and each afternoon it takes the same amount of time to reverse the process. Throw in more than 400 special trips - such as sporting events or field trips - that buses have made just since September and you have a logistical challenge of epic proportions.
      "Our drivers run two million miles a year," said Gary Derrigan, executive director of operations for TCAPS and a Road Checker.
      "This district covers a lot of nooks and crannies and we go into little subdivisions that most people don't even know exist," he said. "It is one of the most unusual districts geographically where the roads can be fine in one place but not in others. We have to look at the safety of everyone during the winter."
      Though they lack a catchy theme song or a spiffy spandex costume, the Traverse City Area Public School's team of Road Checkers can be instant superheroes to scores of schoolchildren around the region. Or instant goats, depending on who you ask.
      For Road Checkers, unfinished book reports, looming tests, parents' work schedules and the best-laid plans of teachers all take a back seat to one thing: safety of the children in the school system.
      "Deciding whether to close school or not is a tremendous responsibility," said Gary Derrigan, executive director of operations for TCAPS and a Road Checker in Leelanau County.
      "We're looking at the safety and well-being of kids. Our whole goal is to keep kids on routes and on time. If we can't do it, we have to consider their safety, either from other drivers while they wait at the bus stops or from the cold."
      The eight Road Checkers are ordinary bus drivers, dispatchers and transportation supervisors by day. On stormy winter nights from November to April, however, they morph into the eyes and ears (and wheels) of the school superintendent, who makes the final call whether to hold school, based on their recommendation.
      "Once the decision is made, we don't have school no matter what happens because by 4:45 a.m. all the information is out there to the public," said Terri Councilor, transportation director and a member of the Road Checkers team. "We notify TV and radio stations and have a phone tree in-house that lets all the bus drivers know."
      Each of the eight Road Checkers is on call for a week at a time, sitting on the hot seat and deciding when to dispatch the rest of the team. When snow is falling or predicted, this person watches the weather closely and may consult with meteorologist Greg MacMaster of TV7&4 for an additional perspective. They also watch the transportation department's own Doppler computer closely on the day before.
      By 2:00 a.m., they are up calling the State Police and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission for updates. If they need more information, they call the rest of the team by 2:30 a.m. to get everyone rolling by 3 a.m. Most of the team was sleeping with one eye open anyway, figuring the phone would ring soon.
      After driving their routes, all the Road Checkers meet by 4:00-4:30 at the bus garage to again check their Doppler computer and make a final recommendation to the superintendent. When he gives the thumbs down, the media is called and the Road Checkers are temporary heroes to the youngsters in the Grand Traverse region.
      The milder winters of the past few years have actually made the Road Checkers' job more difficult. Icy roads and early morning temperature dips make for treacherous driving before dawn, a time when most buses would be on the road. So sometimes calling school seems foolish on what later turns into a beautiful, sunny day, but the morning conditions were too dangerous to send students out.
      "Snow is not our main problem, icy and windy conditions are worse, " said Ralph Altwies, assistant director of vehicle maintenance and a veteran Road Checker. "We live with this weather stuff 24/7 because even on the weekend it can affect Monday mornings. I think some people think we just look out our bedroom windows and make a decision, but we have a system."