THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503210527
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
The Currituck County Board of Education is again advertising for a builder to erect a new high school in Barco.
The five-member board voted Monday night to follow the advice of chief architect C. Michael Ross and rebid the project rather than accept a contractor's $15.1 million offer made months ago.
``The fact that the board's architect had not finished negotiating a contract with J.H. Hudson'' was a factor, Currituck County Schools Superintendent W.R. ``Ronnie'' Capps said Tuesday.
``There was also a lot of concern about changing general contractors in the middle of a contract.''
The Greenville-based J.H. Hudson Construction Co. is splitting from its parent company in St. Louis and would honor the Currituck County school project only if its original contract were signed by March 21.
Work after this year would be completed by T.A. Loving Construction Co. of Goldsboro.
The original offer from J.H. Hudson was formally rejected Monday when the school board voted for another round of bidding.
Ross had recommended rebidding the project for a 159,455-square-foot facility, to be built next to the existing Currituck County High School in Barco.
The first set of bids in December were much higher than expected and blamed, in part, on a recent construction boom. J.H. Hudson's low bid was $3.7 million more than the school board had planned to spend.
Capps said Tuesday the board was told that three general contractors who submitted previous bids are interested in making another offer.
School officials and a facilities review committee have suggested numerous changes in the building's appearance that may lower bid prices, he said.
Advertisements should be published this weekend, and bids will be opened April 5.
At a Board of Commissioners meeting Monday evening, some county officials and residents questioned the short time span to collect new offers.
The school board hopes to still open the new school by September 1996. But, Capps said, ``we have to be realistic, too, in that we've had setbacks with this.
``Time should not drive the project so much as quality.''
Commissioners and school board members plan to meet next week to discuss the latest plans for a new school for ninth- through 12th-graders.
The current high school would be converted into a junior high, and Knapp Junior High would become an elementary school serving some of the students now enrolled in overcrowded Moyock Elementary.
In a related matter, Currituck County officials were continuing the process to sell $16 million in electorate-approved bonds for the project.
A team will meet this morning for a bond rating at Moody's Investors Service in New York. ``They rate your locale as a service to potential bond buyers,'' County Manager Bill Richardson said.
The latest setback should not affect the bond rating, Richardson said.
``I think it's the position of the board that we're not going to sell these bonds till the school situation is straightened out,'' Eldon Miller, vice chairman of the board, said.
Commissioners on Monday also voted to request authorization from the General Assembly to levy new or additional taxes. Some of the new revenue could be used for school construction.
The requests include raising the county's current land-transfer tax from 1 to 2 percent and establishing a 1-percent meals tax.
The board also will ask state legislators to allow a beautification district in Corolla to be put to a vote. If approved, a district tax would be established to build a bike path on the county's Outer Banks.
The path would connect to one already built along N.C. 12 at Corolla Light and Monterey Shores.
Chairman Ernie Bowden emphasized that no other tax source would be used to pay for the bike path.
The idea for a business privilege tax was rejected. Commissioners believed it might discourage commercial development. by CNB