By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor

tyler@southerntorch.com

RAINSVILLE, Ala.—The DeKalb County Board of Education voted at an emergency meeting Monday night to approve the purchase of 11.6 acres in Rainsville for $150,000. The new property footprint borders the current campus of the DeKalb County Technical School in Rainsville and extends from the tech school to the property adjacent to Mountain Lanes Bowling Alley.

The DeKalb BOE recently sold property in Fort Payne for $300,000 that currently serves as the county’s bus garage. Roughly $150,000 from the sale will be used for the purchase of the 11.6-acre tract in Rainsville. The BOE will use the new property for future BOE development and immediately to build a new bus garage in Rainsville, a measure that officials say will save thousands in fuel costs alone.

DeKalb BOE member Mark Richards said the investment in the new property will allow the BOE to expand as needed in the years to come while allowing the consolidation of the DeKalb County Schools bus garage with existing BOE property in Rainsville.

“The purchase of this property is a great move for DeKalb County Schools,” Richards said. “It ensures that we will be able to build as we grow in the future and provides a new location for our bus garage that will significantly cut fuel fuel costs.”

The DeKalb County BOE will meet again on Jan. 21, 2016.