Knoxville — A group of Knoxville leaders is working to bridge a Knox County elementary school to a Boys & Girls Club, thereby saving the organization several thousand dollars.
The Halls/Powell location of the Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley sits directly across Dry Gap Pike from Brickey-McCloud Elementary, but to safely transport the students to the afterschool program the organization uses a school bus. The bus makes two trips from the school to the organization each school day. Each year that costs the Boys & Girls Club around $37,000.
"That's our mode of transportation. That's the way we feel is the safest way to get our kids across to us right now," Halls/Powell Boys & Girls Club executive director Kelly Hayman said.
This 2018 class of Leadership Knoxville decided to revive a project connecting the school to the Boys & Girls Club.
Nearly a decade ago, there was a plan to connect the properties with a path crossing Dry Gap Pike underneath the bridge spanning Beaver Creek. Once the planning and collaboration was rekindle this year, a plan emerged to cross the road with a pedestrian bridge.
"We just got excited about it," Leadership Knoxville member Bart Carey said. "We all grabbed on it and it just seemed like something we could do that would make a long term payback."
Several groups came together to help the gears turn so the project will become a reality. The timetable on the project is not solidified at this time.
