Putnam County Schools have rejected bids for the Avery Trace Middle School lighting project, after the low bid came in over budget.
Deputy Schools Director Tim Martin said the project consisted of replacing the auditorium’s lights and electrical wiring for the lighting. Martin said the school board has budgeted $300,000 for the project, but the bid came back at an estimated $800,000. Martin said installing new electrical wiring is what drove the cost up.
“We’ll have to go back to the engineering company and see if there’s a way we can do with maybe fewer lights,” Martin said. “Maybe, maybe we’ll get some bigger spotlights and have fewer of them around or something like that.”
Martin said the middle school does not use the auditorium very often. Martin said a lack of use made it hard to justify spending almost $800,000 to replace the lights.
“We do want everything there to work, and we want them to be able to use the stage for what they want to use it for,” Martin said. “We’re just gonna have to go back and talk about what that is and what’s really needed.”
Martin said the auditorium used to be a high school auditorium. Martin said new lights would vastly improve the auditorium.
“They do hold events in there, they just don’t have the big productions like we generally have at the high school level,” Martin said. “But they also have the opportunity to rent that auditorium out sometimes, so that does present an opportunity for the school to earn some money under some situations.”
