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LIBERTY, Miss. (AP) — In two years' time, nothing has changed when it rains at Amite County High School, which still has leaky roofs despite the school board's efforts to make repairs.
The board hired New Path Strategies to oversee the work, including finding a contractor to make repairs to the roofs at the high school campus. The project is stalled.
Trustees received a small degree of comfort at their meeting earlier this month, learning they will likely find a contractor for the work but they must now re-advertise the bids — a process that takes weeks.
This will put the construction date for the repairs at the beginning of June at the earliest, business manager Tommy Felter said.
"We are looking at a June 1 construction start date. In early March, we expect to rebid the work. That will run about three or four weeks in the paper. In mid-April the board hopes to choose the best bidder for the project," Felter said.
It's a road school trustees have already been down.
More than 18 months ago, the district hired New Path to oversee the process to fix the roofs covering the south wing of the high school, including the gymnasium and auditorium.
Aa series of delays and an apparent lack of communication between board members and the consultant on the project has led all parties to this point.
Dwayne Ellis of New Path said not all of the delays were within his control. He said widespread hail damage held up area roofing contractors from bidding during the initial advertisement of bids in the fall. He told trustees he was having a difficult time finding a local contractor to do the work, especially one that came from the Amite County area.
To keep the contract in the area and not have to pay for additional transportation costs, Ellis said he cast a small net at the time, as per the wishes of the school board. After looking farther, Ellis said the bids came back too high for the project.
Ellis then came up with his own proposal to reduce the cost of the project by using alternative materials for the roof work, but the structural engineer wouldn't approve.
Ellis said he redesigned the plan again, this time with a pitched roof that received the engineer's approval.
In December, Ellis faced questioning from the board, mainly about delays. Since then, Felter has been in contact with Ellis by conference call. Ellis was not at the January or February board meetings although board members said they had expected to see him.
Felter said the district would again advertise the bids after they had heard from Jack Allin, the structural engineer, at March's board meeting with more details.
If the project starts in June, the contract with New Path Strategies will have surpassed the two-year mark. Since hiring Ellis, the district has paid anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to more than $1,000 a month, Felter said.
Despite the length of the contract, the payments to New Path and the work still failing to get started, board attorney Nate Armistad warned the board that looking for another consultant now could be more costly than it's worth.
"I realize everyone is frustrated, but if we start over, it could cause an extensive delay and make a bad situation worse," he said. "We are back on track, and all parties have come to an agreement. Now is not the time to start over. We've made substantial progress. Yes, the delay was caused by New Path, but we don't want to back up further."
The City of McComb and the McComb School District have used New Path before, both related to negotiating with insurance companies and contractors for roof repairs following the March 2013 hailstorm.
While McComb city and school officials report mostly favorable results with New Path, Amite County school officials say they are second-guessing their decision to hire the firm.
Board member Diane Cook said the district would be wise to review their options more carefully in the future when it comes to building repairs.
"We are essentially back to square one ... to where we were 18 months ago ... and nothing has been done," she said.
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Information from: Enterprise-Journal, http://www.enterprise-journal.com
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