Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

State backs off on auditorium

Parts of the proposed new Gurdon High School auditorium complex may not be built during phase one since the Arkansas Department of Education has notified the school that it is pulling almost $300,000 it had pledged to the project.

Gurdon Superintendent Bobby Smithson told three members of the Gurdon School Board about the situation during a special meeting called on Thursday, Sept. 13. Because there was not a quorum of members present, the meeting could not be called to order and no business could be transacted.

Smithson said he received an email from the Department of Education on Tuesday, Sept. 11, notifying him of the potential loss in funding. The department is basically saying that the prior approval for the construction of a 1,200 seat auditorium for the district was a mistake because the facility would be too large for a district the size of Gurdon.

The school district can continue to build a performing arts building as large as it wants, but the state is capped by law to the standards in the manual, regardless of any error that may have been made in the past. Our state share must be reduced to $539,175, the email states.

The district had previously expected to receive $816,000 in state funds for the project.

Smithson was not happy with the news from the state. They change their rules as they go along ... I talked to him real straight. Hes got the law standing behind him, he says, he said of the department of education official.

After his talk with the official, Smithson said the department may be willing to negotiate some on the figure, but it is unlikely that they will decide to fund the entire project.

With the reduced amount pledged from the state, the district can continue with the construction of the 1,200 seat auditorium as the money is on hand, but the other phases of the project  a superintendents suite and a band and choir hall  will have to be put off indefinitely.

District voters approved several months ago the restructuring of district debt to finance the districts portion of the auditorium project. The restructuring brought in just over $1.9 million. The district also has $186,229 in donations for the construction of the building.

It is estimated that it will cost $2.6 million to build the auditorium. That figure does not include the other phases of the complex.

Prior to the called meeting, Smithson said he had called the districts architect to put a hold on the drawing of the building plans until the board could make a decision as to how to proceed. Since there was no quorum at the meeting, Smithson said he would tell the architect to proceed with the plans for the 1,200 seat auditorium.

Smithson hopes to have bids for the construction of the facility in during the month of October to that construction can begin before winter.