Section Of Roosevelt Drive Designated As School Safety Zone

Sparta Aldermen have designated a section of Roosevelt Drive as a school safety zone.

Mayor Jeff Young said the move addresses a safety concern for the White County School System.

“For the past several years, they’ve had an SRO out there directing traffic for East and westbound lanes on Roosevelt turning into Robert Knight Drive, which is where the parking lot and drop-off zone is on the back side of the high school,” Young said. “Now they have one of the school teachers out there doing the traffic directing. They just felt like it would be a much safer situation if you actually had some signs slowing down traffic.”

Aldermen voted Thursday to purchase a solar-powered caution light for the section of roadway. Young said the White County Board of Education will purchase a second light.

“The board of education usually takes care of the cost on those and the city will install them,” Young said. “We decided Thursday that we were going to purchase one and let the board of education purchase the other.”

Young said the board of education first requested the school safety zone designation for Roosevelt Drive just over a year ago.