Kids ride in style to after-school care

By: PHILIP K. IRELAND - Staff Writer | Wednesday, September 7, 2005 11:37 PM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- In a modern-day twist of transportation fate, kids at two Carlsbad schools are being chauffeured in style to after-school care in a sleek black 2005 Ford Excursion super stretch limousine.

"I think it's cool," declared Laura Wood, a third-grader at Pacific Rim Elementary, just one day shy of the tender age of 8. "We can sit wherever we want and we don't have to just sit here and get squished for the rest of the ride."

"They're so lucky. They get a limo," exclaimed one envious, pint-sized passerby, pulled by his mother to the "oh-so-plain" family mini-van, as the chosen few piled into their regal ride.

Laura, seven of her friends, their backpacks and various school projects lounged in the cavernous air-conditioned rear of an Alpha Limousine en route to the Boys and Girls Club of La Costa on Wednesday, the second day of limo service that marked a new era in "la-di-da."

"It's not everyday ---- until now ---- you get to ride in a limo," said third-grader Marisa Greger. "I feel like a movie star, like Mariah Carey."

The unusual arrangement came about with a little American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.

Faced with a cost increase from the transportation company that provided rides last school year, Boys and Girls Club Director Denise Lamb sought a better deal.

So when Betsy Linardy, owner of Alpha Limousine, approached Lamb with the idea of providing transportation each afternoon to the club on Centella Drive in east Carlsbad, Lamb was primed.

"My first thought was 'Limos, that's cool,'" Lamb said. "And then it was, 'What's best for the kids, and what works for the parents?'"

Lamb did her homework. Convinced that the limo service was indeed safe and the better deal, she contracted for five-day-a-week service. Alpha transports about 27 students from Pacific Rim and Aviara Oaks Middle School.

Instead of the $126 per month per child for a van, the limo deal came in at $90 per month per child, Lamb said. The club passes the cost on to parents.

The deal pleases Laura's mom, Elizabeth Wood, who said she's saving double. The Aviara Oaks limo picks up her other child, too.

"When I put my children back in the Boys and Girls Club this year they told me it would be ten dollars cheaper per child, so this is a much better deal," Elizabeth Wood said.

Even better, Lamb said, Alpha Limousine provides two fancy limos ---- one to pick up students at Pacific Rim and another for Aviara Oaks Middle School. Each limo picks the kids up and delivers them nonstop to the club, unlike last year's van service that stopped at both schools.

Last year, Laura said, she rode to the club in east Carlsbad "squished into a van." So the wide gray faux leather seats, the multi-speaker sound system, the tinted windows, the full (alchohol-free) bar, the "soda" flutes, and fancy mood lighting are OK with her.

And the deal works for Linardy, who with her husband, founded the business in 2001 when he was laid off from a construction supply firm. The deal provides daily work for two drivers and gives the company a steady income to supplement the more traditional adult clientele, Linardy said. The company now operates five limos; two 10-passenger Lincoln Town Cars, two six-passenger Town Cars, and the 14-passenger Expedition, a $82,000 five-window ride some 35 feet long.

Linardy, originally from Boston, clearly enjoyed working with her young clients.

"What are the rules for riding in a limo," she asked as the kids buckled in. "No slapping the driver, no smoking cigars ---- ever ---- and no standing up."

Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at 760-901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com

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