By Staff
Paving on Belleville Avenue should begin sometime in the next three to four weeks, according to folks at city hall.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who travel up and down Belleville that will be quite happy with that information - not to mention the joy of the folks who live on that thoroughfare at the news of a freshly paved street.
Me, however, not so much.
I am happy that I won't have to take an out of the ordinary route for my almost daily trip to the shopping centers on that end of town. I am also happy that the work being done to the utilities on that street is very near completion and that a freshly paved Belleville Avenue is just a short time away from becoming a reality.
What I am most sad about is the thought of a special spot on Belleville that I'm certain will no longer exist once the project is complete.
For those of you who have lived in or around the Brewton area for more than 10 or so years, you'll remember the spot. It was known simply as &#8220Belleville Bump.”
As a child I can remember driving up Belleville Avenue to go to the hospital or doctors office and getting a thrill when the car approached, topped and bounded down on the other side of this memory-producing spot.
The spot, which was the result of some not-so-careful road grading at the intersection of Belleville Avenue and McLelland Avenue, has been the joy of many a child, teen and even a few adults over the years.
With traffic growing in the city, repaving of streets has been necessary. I have certainly noticed that over the past couple of pavings, the &#8220bump” has gone down considerably. So much in fact that if you were not aware of its existence, you probably wouldn't even know it was ever there.
I did make a trip up Belleville on Thursday afternoon just to make sure that I had the location of the bump correct. Only because I was looking for the bump was it obvious when I arrived at the proper point. It is still there, but only a minimized version of the bump that existed in my youth.
I realize that there is a stretch of Belleville Avenue that is a little rough to travel on at the present time. There are even some signs that have been put up to warn you of that situation. But if you have a little time in the next few weeks, my advice to you would be to take a ride on Belleville Avenue just to experience the bump before it's too late.
I'm excited about a smooth street with new black pavement and some clean, bright striping as well.
It will be a benefit to our community and will help us to maintain our public image as being a quaint little town. At least with a nicely paved street, visitors to our city won't have to go back and say how bad the streets were. We do need to keep up our image. I'm happy at that prospect.
But I will miss the bump.
Lisa Tindell is a news writer for The Brewton Standard. She can be reached at 867-4876 r by email at lisa.tindell@brewtonstandard.com.