By Staff Reports

RAINSVILLE, Ala. — The City of Rainsville, The Rainsville Industrial Development Board and The DeKalb County Board of Education will have a joint ribbon cutting at the new bus garage location in the Rainsville Industrial Park off of Roy Sanderson Drive on July 19 at 5:00 to celebrate the completion of construction of the new facility that will house the DeKalb County School Board's bus and vehicle maintenance operation. This has been an ongoing project in planning and construction for the past 18 months. "Working with the City of Rainsville and the Rainsville Industrial Development Board to provide a new home for our bus garage has been a great exercise of teamwork. It has been a pleasure to work together on this project and I look forward to the benefits it will provide our school system and ultimately our students," Superintendent Dr. Jason Barnett suggested.

DeKalb County Board members were also pleased to see this project come to a close. Matt Sharp added, "I would like to thank Dr. Barnett, Mayor Lingerfelt and the Rainsville City Council and the Rainsville Industrial Board for working so cooperatively with the DeKalb County Board of Education in helping us build the new DeKalb County Bus Garage. This move will save our school system a lot of money over the next several years and it will be a more convenient and modern facility for our bus garage employees and our bus drivers. The old facility was in such poor condition that it could not be renovated and was in a bad location for our system. We owe a big thank you to Dr. Atchley for all he has done to make sure the facility meets the needs of our employees. We have about 120 buses on the road every day during the school year and this facility will be very instrumental in helping make those buses safe for our students." Mark Richards also interjected that he, "was proud to see the teamwork and effort that went into making this a reality. This will serve as a wonderful facility for our school system and should improve operations tremendously."

The location should be an asset to the school system as well. Board Chairman, Jeff Williams suggests, "this centrally located facility will save us time, money and increase efficiency. It will also give us ample space to park our entire fleet in one secure location." Superintendent Barnett also wants to thank the Fort Payne Waterworks Board for their willingness to work with them during the construction of the new facility as the FPWW takes over usage of the former bus garage.