During Monday’s meeting of the Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees, district maintenance director Stephen Little provided updates on a list of capital projects — everything from concrete and wood work to playgrounds, lighting and pressure washing.
But it was Little’s update on the state of the intercom/public address system at Columbus High that commanded much of the attention.
“It’s on its last legs,” CMSD Superintendent Cherie Labat said. “We need a system that works and works well.”
Board President Jason Spears said addressing the high school’s intercom system should be a top priority.
“It has the potential to be a safety issue,” Spears said. “It’s something we saw when we did our tour of campuses. The system is not functioning in most of the buildings. We do have a back-up system with walkie-talkies and cell phones, but we need to have a unified system that works.”
Little provided the company with two options, with multiple bids on each.
“We have three bids to replace the entire system,” Little said. “But we have another option, too, which is to replace the control panel, basically, the brains of the system and we have separate bids for that.”
Little said bids to replace the entire system ranged from $115,000 to $145,000 while bids to replace the main control panel ranged from $28,500 to $42,300.
Whichever option the district chooses, there’s little doubt the current system has outlived its usefulness, Little said.
“As close as I can figure it, the current system was installed sometime between 1993 and 1996,” Little said. “From talking to people, that’s about as long as a system can last. Little by little, we’ve done some patch repairs to keep it going, but that’s about it. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we need to make some major updates.”
Little said one of the companies that bid on both projects gives the district another option, should it decide to replace only the main control system.
“Mississippi Alarm said if we chose them to replace the control panel, they would warranty the wiring and speakers for a year, even though the main warranty would be on the control panel,” Little said. “So after they install the control panel, if a wire or speaker goes bad, they would repair it at no charge for a year.”
Mississippi Alarm’s bid to replace the control panel is $31,296.
Spears said the option is intriguing, but he isn’t ready to commit to either project.
“The benefit of doing (the Mississippi Alarm project) would give us a year to see if everything is fully functioning, but if the wires and speakers are as old as the control panel, it might be better to address it all at once,” he said.
Spears said the board will revisit the plans after Little provided detailed information on all of the bids.
“It’s definitely something we need to address,’ Spears said. “It’s a priority.”
Other projects outlined included replacing the halide lights at the football stadium to LED lights (bids ranged from $230,000 to $300,000), replacing playground equipment at Franklin Academy and Sale Elementary ($13,000 to $15,000 at each school), replacing parking lot lights at Columbus Middle School ($7,500 to $9,000) and concrete work at the high school and Joe Cook Elementary (approximately $21,000).
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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