Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

CMS Nears Completion

Gurdon's newest school is almost completed.

The new Cabe Middle School should be ready for operation when school begins Wednesday, Aug. 19.

This is what Gurdon Superintendent Bobby Smithson told the Gurdon School Board at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, July 21.

At this time, he said, the bathrooms need partitions added. However, the partitions aren't expected to be in until Aug. 20.

Lockers from the old Gurdon Middle School have been repainted and installed at CMS, and teachers are ready to begin moving in. They still have to decide where they want their marker boards hung, and this will be done on the basis of teacher preference.

Concrete for the parking lot has been poured, he said, with two bids submitted for the rest of the lot, which will be asphalted. The low bid was from Statewide Asphalt, formerly Almond Paving, of Malvern for $28,375.

However, Smithson said, this doesn't include the base or sub-base, but the two-inch overlay.

Compaction tests on the lot figured more than 95 percent overall, and only have to meet the 95 percent criteria.

The other bid wasn't actually for the CMS project, but was for the GHS lot. Quinton Ledbetter of Fordyce turned in a bid of $24,000 to repave the GHS lot and didn't bid on the CMS work at all.

Smithson recommended negotiating with Statewide to see if a better deal can be reached for the GHS lot as well. The board agreed $24,000 may be too much for the high school project.

The building materials for the Gurdon Primary School physical education building are expected to be in by Aug. 11. However, Smithson said, once it's in, it shouldn't take too long to put up. The foundation has already been poured and the plumbing laid out.

A down payment of $3,000 has been made to Tyler Building Co. for the structure.

In other business, the board agreed to bail out those programs going over budget for the 1997-98 school year.

On the lawsuit because of the GHS parking lot, Smithson said the company being sued may be going "belly up." He said it is hoped most of the money can be recovered when the suit goes to court in October, but nothing firm is known at this time.

The board agreed to change insurance companies for student insurance, going from Southwest to the Dwight Jones Agency.

The Jones agency offered lower prices across the board on coverage.

Coleman Dairy got the bid for supplying milk to the district as the only bidder for dairy products.

There were two bids for bread at the school, one from Flowers Bakers and the other from Wonder. Wonder again had the lowest prices across the board and received the bid.

The district has several vehicles to be sold at bid, a couple of pickups and a car. Sealed bids will be taken and opened at the August meeting.

The Coca Cola Company submitted a proposal to the district, offering $30,000 up front if the district will agree to buy nothing but Coke products for the next 10 years.

A representative from the company said the district could make $16,000 per year in sales.

Coca Cola would pay the district commissions on all products sold at school events and the schools.

In addition, the company would give the district $800 a year in products.

However, Smithson said, the representative didn't answer all his questions. The district wants to keep the cost of soft drinks at 50-cents for a 12-ounce can and not go up on the price.

While it sounds like a win-win situation, Smithson said, it would only be fair to contact the Pepsi Corporation to see if they have a similar offer.