BOE Approves Contractor for Sewer Project

Officials with the hope to begin construction of sewer infrastructure for three schools in and Hickory Flat as soon as school lets out for summer vacation.

The Board of Education on Thursday night voted to award the low bid of 1.32 million to Strack Incorporated contingent upon the school system getting all easements necessary for the project, something that has been an issue.

“As we stand here right now, we do not have all those easements in our pocket,” said Tom Roach, board attorney.

If the work starts when expected, it should be finished by the time students return to school in the fall.

“It’s important to get this done,” Vice Chairwoman Janet Read said.

There were five bids submitted for the project, which ranged in price from the high bid of $1.83 million to Strack Incorporated’s low bid. Read said the project had 67 unit price items.

“We’ve never had one with that many,” she said.

The work will bring sewer service to the three schools in the area—  and . Lines will be brought in from two directions to the area of Sequoyah High for project, which also includes replacing the drainage fields. The sewer project needs to be completed before work can begin on the Dean Rusk Middle School replacement, Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said.

The new Dean Rusk Middle School is slated to open in Fall 2015 and, while it will be a carbon copy of the new Booth and Teasley Middle Schools, plans will have to be altered to fit Dean Rusk’s smaller, more limited campus. The new building will have enough room for Dean Rusk’s sixth-graders to move from Holly Springs, and  elementaries and join the seventh-and-eighth-graders at the middle school.

Both projects will be funded with the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax which begins in January and runs through 2017.