Doyle Blankenship---a 30-year employee in the transportation department of the Allen County School District---has been recognized by the Student Transportation Association of Kentucky (STAK) as the Mechanic-of-the-Year. Blankenship received the award at the annual STAK conference Monday in Louisville.
“I don’t know that I really deserve this,” Blankenship said. “It was a surprise.”
Blankenship’s award recognizes his work---a work that is somewhat behind the scenes within the transportation department but vital to the safe transportation of the district’s 3,000 students.
“Every bus we have in the district is in here every month for inspection,” Blankenship explained. “The busses go on the rack, they get a grease job, and we check the brakes. We look the bus over to see if there is anything wrong. We also do all our engine work and all repair work in-house except rebuild automatic transmissions.”
Blankenship points out that his job has changed considerably since he began in the mid 1980s.
“When I came to work, we had all gas busses and everything was straight-shift,” Blankenship explained. “All the bus doors were manually operated. Now, everything is automatic. Now, all the busses have safety features. Yes, there have been a lot of changes since I came to work.”
Around the year, Blankenship and fellow mechanics James Osborne and Brian Hogue spend time making sure the district’s 56 buses are prepared to transport students each and every day.
“Maybe you don’t want to call the kids cargo but the way I look at it is that we haul the most precious cargo that you can haul,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship---nominated for the award by former Allen County Transportation Director Bobby Williams---notes that his work is made easier due to the excellent working relationship inside the department and face-to-face communication with drivers.
“The transportation team---from Wendell (Spears) and Roger (Weaver) to the drivers---has such a good relationship,” Blankenship said. “A lot of times, I like to talk to the bus drivers. They may not know what is wrong but when you talk to them they can give you the information that you can figure it out quickly.”
The 30-year veteran adds that he is looking forward to working a few more years before retirement---an excitement stemming from another recent change that has come to the bus fleet in Allen County.
“I’m excited about the two propane busses we now have,” Blankenship admitted. “They are so much simpler. They are a gas engine that runs on propane. That’s kind of an incentive for me to stay around.”
Wendell Spears---transportation director for the Allen County School District---praised Blankenship for his work.
“This is well deserved for Doyle,” Spears said. “He is a great guy with a wealth of knowledge about mechanics. When it comes to busses, he knows his stuff. He is a pleasure to work with. His heart is in the right place. When a bus breaks down, Doyle will bend-over-backwards and go that extra mile to get a bus repaired and back on the route. I could go on-and-on with stories of how Doyle has gone that extra mile. He is also always thinking about safety.”
Spears adds that Blankenship and the mechanics spent hour-after-hour, around the year checking the busses.
“Our mechanics work harder in the summer than they do the rest of the year,” Spears explained. “They go over the busses with a fine-tooth comb every summer and then through the year, we inspect every bus once a month. Plus, our mechanics look at everything mechanically that goes wrong. They work on everything, from the major to the minor.”
Blankenship was not the only member of the district transportation team receiving recognition this week at the state STAK conference.
Spears received the 2015 J.T. Coomer Memorial Award---the award given to STAK’s Director of the Year. The award comes less than a month after Spears was named Transportation Director of the Year by Kentucky Association for Pupil Transportation---a similar statewide organization as STAK.
“This was a total shock,” Spears said. “Again, I accept this award on behalf of our transportation team. When you surround yourself with great people, great things happen.”
The Allen County School District operates 40 buses daily on routes during the school year. Allen County school buses are on the road year round---transporting students for athletic and academic endeavors. Overall, Allen County school buses travel approximately 450,000 miles per year.