RIPON – Sometime in the coming months Ripon will have one of the cleanest running buses ferrying passengers around town.

But first improvements are needed at the city corporation yard. No discussion was necessary last Tuesday as elected officials agreed on the go-ahead plans to improve the future corporate yard site.

The City of Ripon purchased a compressed natural gas bus not too long ago. With it came the expansion of the CNG fueling station that will provide the timefill alternative fuel for the bus.

The Ripon City Council, in turn, approved the proposal by the professional engineering and consulting services of T. Mitchell Engineers and Associates for the covered parking structure and fueling station timefill pumps.

A fixed cost for the consultant’s proposal was $19,400 and will be paid via grant funds.

The proposed bus shelter is planned for the area near the City of Ripon Corporate Yard, 1210 S. Vera Ave., at Doak Boulevard.

The city, in addition, received $300,000 of grant funding to construct a secured storage area for a CNG bus as well as the expansion of the CNG fueling station.

CNG is a fossil fuel substitute for the likes of gasoline, diesel fuel or propane, but is more of an environmentally clean alternative to those fuels. The CNG combustion, for example, does not produce greenhouse gases.

CNG fuel can be a mix of biogas made possible by landfill gas or waste water treatment plant digesters.

All civil design work for the project will be handled by city engineer Kevin Werner and his staff.