RMV paperwork has now been filed
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

It appears appropriate paperwork was filed this month with the Registry of Motor Vehicles for school buses to be garaged in Ashburnham, ending a long-standing discrepancy with the school district's transportation contractor and likely bringing thousands of dollars into the town.

Ashburnham Selectmen said that in a running of the registration by Police Chief Loring Barrett, it appeared the school buses were not registered as being garaged in Ashburnham, and instead were registered in Marlboro. The school buses are parked each night and during most of the days in a parking area in South Ashburnham near Mr. Mike's on Route 101.

Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Superintendent Michael Zapantis said he held a series of phone calls with one of the employees at FirstStudent Bus Company.

"We've been going back and forth," Zapantis said. "We've had to be persistent."

The town and the school district had received a letter during the winter saying the location of the buses had been changed, but a recent check by Barrett indicated that was not the case.

"We want the town to receive the money they deserve through these buses," Zapantis said.

The town could receive about $30,000.

Zapantis has received copies of RMVForm 3s from FirstStudent, which show the change in the location of the buses, so he hopes everything is now sorted out.

"I think we've set the record straight," he said.

The contract that the school district signed with the bus company and started this school year requires the buses to be garaged in either Ashburnham or Westminster. The state excise taxes are collected in the town or city where the buses are garaged, according to the RMV's records.

"We wanted one of the two towns to get the benefits of the excise tax," Zapantis said.

The clause to garage the buses in one of the two towns is not a requirement in every bus contract for the district or for other districts. The terms of this contract, which started in July 2007, will last for another two years and gives the district the option of continuing the contract for two more years.

FirstStudent acquired the bus contract in October after a merger between the Ohio-based company and the original low bidder on the contract, Laidlaw Transit Company. As part of the merger the contract changed companies with no changes to the terms.