Fentress Schools To Receive Two New School Buses

Fentress County Schools will receive two new school buses this year.

Director of Schools Mike Jones said a some $147,000 Volkswagen grant will provide funding for the new buses.

“The savings will come when those buses will have to be replaced because you will have a longer life on the term of those buses,” Jones said. “Where they would probably go off service in three or four years, you will see the return on investment in those years.”

The grant will award the schools when the two school buses retire after a maximum of 15 years.

Jones said the grant comes from a diesel settlement trust aimed to get older more polluting engines off the roadways.

“We applied for six buses, but they picked the two buses and when you have to scrap those buses,” Jones said, “they drill a hole in the block and scrap them out and then you are awarded the funds.”

Jones said the school system may not see the new buses until the end of the year.

“Well, we are a ways from that I think maybe we are hoping maybe this fall. You have to order buses, you don’t just go to a lot and pick out a bus,” Jones said. “They have to be built and everything. So it’s a process. Hopefully we will have them this fall.”

Fentress is one of several counties receiving similar grants, including Putnam and Scott County.