THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 19, 1997 TAG: 9702190390
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 103 lines
Two years ago, in its 1995-96 budget, the Dare County Board of Commissioners appropriated $250,000 for each of the next three years to get roofs fixed at county schools.
That money mostly has sat unspent, and school roofs from Manteo to Hatteras leaked and leaked and leaked. Now, fixing leaks is part of some $7.1 million in repairs included in a proposed $59.5 million bond issue.
The issue is likely to come up Friday when the Board of Commissioners meets with its bond counsel in the morning and with the Board of Education in the afternoon.
School officials say the district was unable to get qualified bids for the repairs, delaying the start of work, although repairs at Kitty Hawk Elementary were begun in December. Those repairs have since been completed.
Members of the Board of Commissioners say that the educators' explanation about why the leaks weren't plugged is full of holes.
``I'm sure they had some problems,'' said Commissioner Doug Langford. ``But now part of the money for the bond issue reflects repairs for roofs. We were putting forward money in 1995-96 that made fixing roofs at schools a top priority.''
Langford said the delays mean an additional two years of wear and tear.
``This is unacceptable,'' Langford said. ``At Manteo High School alone it's been reported that there are over 150 leaks. It's criminal. It's terrible. It's awful.''
School officials say that the money that was originally allocated in 1995-96 was forwarded to the next fiscal year. And, they say that since whole sections of some buildings such as Cape Hatteras School would be rebuilt, and additional sections would be added if the bond passes, it would not be cost effective to do piecemeal roof work.
``In the Boney facilities study, whole sections of buildings would be removed like portions of Cape Hatteras and part of Manteo Middle School,'' Superintendent Leon Holleman said. ``It didn't seem to make much sense to do wholesale roof repairs when portions of buildings were to be removed.''
Holleman said repairs at Manteo Elementary are scheduled for the Easter recess, and at Cape Hatteras during summer vacation. The cost for those projects, as well as work at Kitty Hawk, will exhaust the first $250,000 appropriation, Holleman said.
``We try to schedule the repairs during a time when students aren't in the building,'' Holleman said.
What happens to the remaining $500,000 allocated by the commission?
``It depends on what happens with the bond,'' Holleman said. ``If the bond passes, we can look at other needs. If not, we'll have to do repairs at the other schools; $250,000 is not enough to repair Manteo High School's roof. The estimate two years ago was over $300,000.''
School board members have steadfastly denied that roof repairs were intentionally delayed to help ensure passage of the bond issue, if commissioners agree to put the package to a vote of the people.
``That's not the story,'' school board member Fletcher Willey said in a December interview, and again at public hearings related to the bond. ``We don't want to spend a sizable amount of money on a roof for a building that's going to be renovated or replaced.''
But Commissioner Shirley Hassell said Tuesday that she still has questions concerning how county schools fell into disrepair.
``It's going to be one of my priorities,'' Hassell said. ``We allocated the money for roof repairs well before we knew anything about a bond issue. The thing that bothers me is that all of this eventually revolves around to the Board of Commissioners, and we get blamed for it. But any time the school board let us know they needed money for buses, we provided them with buses. When they let us know they needed money for roof repair, we provided that. We can't help them if we're not aware of it.''
Hassell also questioned past spending priorities.
``It doesn't make sense to ask for computers when you have roofs that leak,'' Hassell said. ``Fix the roofs first, and then buy computers. We're always hearing things are for the children. But our children deserve to go to schools where the roofs don't leak. I want to know how it got that way.''
Langford said that Friday's meetings will be open to the public. He called the Friday sessions ``critical'' in the fate of the bond issue.
``One of the things that we stipulated in Monday's (Board of Commissioners) meeting was that this be open to the public, and that the public be given the opportunity to ask questions of both the Board of Commissioners and the school board. You can't get more democratic than that. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered before we can move forward. We have to know how much everything is going to cost.''
Langford expressed hope that the Friday sessions would strike a positive chord.
``I congratulate the board on making the bond project specific,'' Langford said. ``That means that if an individual project has a cost overrun, they have to deal with it. Monies can't be shifted from one project to another. It's my hope that the meeting won't be adversarial and that we can work together. We have to remember that we're working for the best possible education for our kids. They come first.'' ILLUSTRATION: BOND ISSUE
School board members have steadfastly denied that roof repairs were
intentionally delayed to help ensure passage of the bond issue, if
commissioners agree to put the package to a vote of the people.
``That's not the story,'' school board member Fletcher Willey said
in a December interview, and again at public hearings related to the
bond. ``We don't want to spend a sizable amount of money on a roof
for a building that's going to be renovated or replaced.''
But Commissioner Shirley Hassell said Tuesday that she still has
questions concerning how county schools fell into disrepair.