Bright Hill Road will soon be repaved from Highway 70 to Hooper Road.

Tinsley Asphalt of Tullahoma was recently awarded a bid to resurface the road. The contract is for $284,000 and will cover 2.77 miles.

Although it is partly a city street and county road, Bright Hill is included on the state aid road system which makes it eligible for state funding. According to Road Supervisor Butch Agee 98% of the costs associated with the resurfacing of the road will be funded by the state and the remaining 2% will be paid from the county highway department budget.

Agee said this project has been a long time in coming.

“It really needs it (resurfacing). It’s a bad road. I never dreamed it wouldn’t be on the state aid road list but when I first came into office I got to checking and found out it it wasn’t so I went through the state to get it on the list to be able to afford to pave it. That took a while but I finally managed to do that,” said Road Supervisor Agee.

Work should begin within a few days.

“I have talked to the contractor and he said they anticipate putting up the construction signs next week and then they will have to go in there and do some ditching and pull the shoulders to get ready for the paving. Once they get all their prep work done, they will begin paving hopefully by the first of August,” Agee continued.

Other state aid road projects completed during Agee’s term as Road Supervisor include repaving or micro-surfacing a portion of Student’s Home, South Tittsworth, Jacobs Pillar, and Holmes Creek Road. State aid bridges replaced within the last four years include the Possum Hollow, Underhill Road at Blue Springs, and Holmes Creek Road Bridge in Smithville.

Inspectors of the Tennessee Highway Patrol visited the DeKalb County School Bus Garage Monday to conduct an unannounced spot check of buses in the fleet.

Ten percent of the system’s buses were randomly inspected by State Troopers Darryl Winningham and Craig Wilkerson to ensure that they are being properly maintained. All passed inspection. An annual inspection is done for three days in January but unannounced spot checks, such as the one Monday, are conducted during the year.

The DeKalb County School System has 36 buses including 4 substitute buses.

“We do a complete level one inspection on the buses. We go from the bottom to the top and inside, outside but the biggest thing we’re looking at is the tires to make sure they have proper air inflation and for tread depth wear. We look at the steering boxes. We make sure there’s nothing wrong with the tie rods and ball joints. We check the exhaust system for leaks. We also check the lighting system and anything that has to deal with the stop signs for when the children are unloading and loading to see that they are working properly,” Trooper Wilkerson said

Jimmy Sprague, Transportation Supervisor for the DeKalb County School System said he is pleased with the results of the inspection and gave credit to the bus drivers and mechanics Michael Agee and Justin Coats.