August 2004 State

Transit maintenance team is tops in state

The annual Washington State Roadeo for transit maintenance and operations was held in Yakima on August 24, in conjunction with the WSDOT Public Transportation Conference.

Metro's maintenance team of Jerry McKenna, Bryan Stites and Arvin Vulliet took first place in the Maintenance Section in the state competition.

In a run-off with the state's most decorated Roadeo competitor, Metro bus driver Michael Grady took second place in the Operations Roadeo. He was just edged out of what would have been his fourth state title by Dan Schmidt of Ben Franklin Transit, a three-time national roadeo winner. Grady was philosophical about his finish saying giving it your best shot and finishing second to Danny is not all bad."

Both Grady and the maintenance team are now qualified to compete in the National Roadeo Competition, held in conjunction with the American Passenger Transport Associations annual meeting in Atlanta this October.