mr. elton howell from mta >> good afternoon, supervisors, my name is elton howell, i'd like to thank supervisor cohen for sponsoring this resolution and her support of our transit-related initiatives. the resolution before you is to request approval to enter into a contract with new flyer for the purchase of busses. the contract is for 6 years and consists of one base contract, base order, and 5 options over the next 5 years. the reason we're purchasing these busses is to be able to reduce the age of the fleet and allow us to extend the maintenance on these busses several years and smooth out our maintenance expenses. also we're keeping the age of the busses low, about 6 years, so that the reliability of these busses will be to our advantage. the base contract is to purchase 61 60-foot articulated busses and the contract amount is $68 million dollars. the total project cost is 78 million dollars for the base contract. the options will be executed through amendments to the base contract and staff will seek mta board approval and board of supervisors approval to implement each amendment. that's t