For over two decades, Mark Scheevel has driven Fillmore Central students to school, but now he’s hanging up his bus keys and moving on to retirement. “It’s been 25 years to the day,” he said, explaining that the day he started Harmony Transit and the day he sold it were exactly 25 years apart. Scheevel plans to stick around through the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year to help with the transition, but after that, Harmony Transit will be completely in the hands of its new owners.
Scheevel started driving school bus in 1995 when Fillmore Central still owned the buses itself. Less than a year later, the school decided to sell the buses and contract the service out instead. At the time, Ken Heibel was the school bus manager for the district. He, Scheevel, and Scheevel’s dad, Myron pooled their resources and put a bid in for the routes. “If you got the bid, you were required to buy the buses,” Scheevel said. They won the bid and in 1996, Harmony Transit Incorporated was born. The trio had co-owned the business for about four years when Myron decided to retire and was bought out by Heibel and Scheevel. In 2008, Heibel retired as well and Scheevel was on his own. At that point, the company had one bus shed in Preston near the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office and another one behind Harmony House in Harmony. Scheevel kept the Preston bus shed as it was, but built a new shed in Harmony on the outskirts of town.
Over the years, Scheevel has enjoyed watching the kids of Fillmore Central grow up. Some of the children he drove to school now have kids of their own who are riding those same buses. The same goes for his long-time bus drivers such as Kurt Reicks, John Hanson, and Bernie Hurley.
On top of the daily bus routes, Scheevel also loved driving for extracurricular activities at the high school level as it gave him the opportunity to get to know the kids even better. “They’re starting to grow up and they’re fun to talk to,” he said. Another benefit was being able to transport his own kids’ teams to their games and watch them all. His daughter Leah was in multiple sports, but basketball was her main one. Scheevel got so involved with the game that he even started working at the scores table keeping score at the games.
There have been some hard times too over the 25 years that Scheevel has owned Harmony Transit. The biggest struggle that he faced was finding bus drivers. “As the years go on, it seems like it gets harder and harder. That gets stressful,” he said. He especially appreciated his long-time drivers as the continuity of having drivers who were familiar with the area and the routes was very helpful. Despite running school bus routes in Minnesota where the weather can be pretty unpredictable, Scheevel never saw it as a big issue. “We took it as it came and adapted to it,” he said, adding that a lot of credit went to the school superintendents that he worked with over the years as they generally relied on him to help them decide whether it was safe to open the school or not. “It was always a joint effort.” Of course, the technology changes and birth of distance learning made that job even easier as there was no longer pressure to get the kids back to school if they’d already missed a few days due to weather.
When Scheevel to start thinking about retirement, he knew that Harmony Transit had to go to someone who was just as passionate about it as he was. “It was more than just a job. I wanted the new owners to be that way too,” he said. Based on some recommendations he received from other school bus companies, he reached out to Faribault Transportation and was thrilled to find that they were a good fit. “I am thoroughly convinced that they will carry on the way I want it,” he said. “They are just so incredibly friendly and forthright and genuine.” Faribault Transportation, a family owned company that operates bus services all over the state of Minnesota, has already hired back all of the current bus drivers employed at Harmony Transit and is in the process of hiring a local manager. They will also continue to support local businesses like Scheevel has always done. The only real change to the bus company other than the owner will be a change in the name from Harmony Transit Inc to Harmony Transit LLC.
Scheevel is very thankful for the support his family has shown for him and Harmony Transit over the years. “She supported me all the way through it,” he said about his wife, Donna, who also recently retired. As teenagers and young adults, their three children all pitched in and worked at the business as well. Leah helped with office work, lawn mowing, and more while their sons, Drew and Derek, got their bus licenses as seniors in high school so they could start driving for their dad. “All my kids were really supportive,” Scheevel said. “I couldn’t ever ask for anything more.” He is also thankful for all of his drivers, and Levi and Zach Olstad who starting working at Harmony Transit as teenagers. “Levi has helped every year for the last 15 years and Zach helped for many years as well,” Scheevel said. “I want to thank my drivers. You couldn’t do this job without them. They have meant the world to me through the years.” Over his 25 years as the owner of Harmony Transit, Scheevel had the opportunity to work with four different Fillmore Central superintendents. “Each one was great to work for. I want to thank the school district for having me for 25 years.”
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