Thanks to stimulus, St. Cloud receives four new transit buses

by Ambar Espinoza, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Cloud, Minn. — The Canadian bus company New Flyer presented the city of St. Cloud with four new transit buses on Wednesday.

New Flyer has manufacturing plants in St. Cloud and Crookston.

Vice President Joe Biden visited the St. Cloud factory in late 2009 to discuss how the economic stimulus would help companies like New Flyer turn tentative orders into firm ones.

But, despite the stimulus money, the company still needed to lay off 270 workers, 70 of which came from the St. Cloud plant.

David Tripp, the executive director of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Transit, said his agency now has a total of 10 New Flyer buses in its fleet. The stimulus bill, or the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, paid for the new buses.

"With transportation projects, the ARRA bill provides 100 percent funding," Tripp said.

This month, New Flyer also delivered buses paid for by federal stimulus money to metro transits in Fargo, Anchorage, Alaska, and Torrance, California