County questions school bid pace
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 9, 2017 1:45 AM
Wayne County commissioners Thursday morning expressed some irritation about the pace of bidding for several school projects.
County Finance Director Allison Speight was reviewing budget amendments for the school projects when Commissioner Joe Gurley asked if the school board had put the Southern Wayne High School gym and classroom project out for bid.
Mrs. Speight said she did not know, but did not think it had gone out to bid.
That project and several others are being financed through the sale of bonds. The budget amendments were discussed during the board's special session called to adopt the new county budget.
"Did they not think that we were going to be able to sell the bonds?" Commissioner Joe Daughtery said. "I am wondering what the holdup is."
Mrs. Speight said she thinks the school board put the urgency on the new Meadow Lane Elementary School and its Edgewood Community Development School wing.
"They were trying to get the architect and the bids out for the construction project on that first," she said. "Then they are going to move on to these other projects pretty soon thereafter."
Mrs. Speight said she does not know the timetable for the projects.
Daughtery asked Mrs. Speight and Assistant County Manager Craig Honeycutt to follow up with the school board to see if the county could "speed that up some."
Commissioner Ray Mayo also asked about plans for new classrooms at Fremont.
"I guess they are probably the last on the list," Mayo said.
That is a project that the county is paying cash for, she said. It is not relying on any bond revenue, Mrs. Speight said.
Instead the cash will come out of the school system's fund balance, she said.
"So fortunately we don't have to wait on any debt financing for that, but I am not sure where they are as far as the bids," she said.
Daughtery said that concerns him.
"We voted on this a year ago," he said. "If you are using reserves that are already there, you don't even have to borrow the money -- why can't you chew gum and walk at the same time?
"You can have more than one project going on at the time. We need to speed them along. We need to encourage them to go ahead. If we are going to build classrooms, let's build them."
The whole idea is to do away with as many mobile classrooms as possible, Mayo said.
"That should be a priority," he said. "Mobile home classrooms are safety issues. There is issue with staffing.
"It leaves security wide open on our schools, and we need to get as many of those off our schoolgrounds as possible as soon as possible."
Commissioner Wayne Aycock said the funding was requested by the school board and that commissioners had made it happen.
"What's the problem with dragging your feet?" he said. "Our kids are our priority."
Honeycutt and Mrs. Speight said they would get an update for commissioners.