Christopher Lugo
editor@highlandsnews.com
The Macon County Board of Commissioners approved an additional expense for Macon Middle School’s renovation during the May 10 meeting.
The first change order brought to the board totaled $37,711 to bring the kitchen hood up to code and to fix existing duct detectors and clean existing duct work in the gym.
“The existing duct work in the gym is not hooked to the fire system,” former county planner Jack Morgan said. “I asked to have those connected and we did, but they are not working properly because they are dirty. We’ve cleaned them as much as we can.”
The next change order was to replace concrete under the canopy at MMS for $127,471.
“We wanted to make the canopy higher, so it doesn’t look like the Green Mile when you walk into the school,” Morgan said. “Currently, the concrete is stained, it’s crumbling and there are trip hazards. I recommended that we address this situation by taking all of the old concrete out where you drop off your children and replace that with new concrete.”
Commissioner Josh Young said the work should have been considered in the original scope of the project.
“I hate to spend this much money this late in the game,” Young said. “I wouldn’t care so much if it wasn’t already deteriorated. My thing is if we are going to spend as much money as we already have on this school, then it needs to look like it when we pull up to it.”
Young made a motion to approve the change order and it was passed unanimously.
With both approvals, that leaves close to $131,000 in the MMS project budget, according to County Finance Director Lori Carpenter.