The Shade - Central City school district has had the same family-run bus company providing transportation for the past 80 years, but that all changed last month when another company entered a lower bid.

The Manges family has owned and operated Alvin's School Bus Service since 1932. The family said it understands the school district isn't wealthy and needs to save money, but said it was forced out of business after it matched a competing bus company's bid and was still overlooked.

"This is our life," said Roxanne Manges, president of Alvin's School Bus Service. "This is 80 years not only of business, but of family history."

It was just five years ago it became one of only two companies in the state to receive the platinum bus award for 75 years in service.

"No one has received 100 (years)," said Roxanne's son Cory, who was next in line to run the business. "I was going to go for 100 but can't do it now."

That's because the school district has accepted a bid from another company for next year.

"It was not supposed to be a bidding war," said Roxanne Manges. "They told me they were not going to go back and forth, that if I matched, it would probably end up being mine; however, that's not what happened."

"The hardest part is that the decision was made for us. We had no say," said Cory Manges. "We did everything we were told to do, there were never any problems, we delivered what we thought was the best service anyone could deliver. Then the next thing you know, gone. Just in one evening, there was one vote and it was over just like that."

It's a decision that puts the family out of business.

"We're not a huge company," said Cory Manges. "We didn't have other contracts and we don't have the means to go after other contracts."

"I'm really hurt that they do this to me more so than anything," said Roxanne Manges.

The Manges family said it's just devastated, not only because it's lost income, but because it's lost the only thing it's ever known.

"A lot of people don't know," said Roxanne Manges. "Some people think that I've sold the business; however, I didn't. It was taken away from me."

6 News reached out to the school district for comment but never received a reply.