Macon County Director of Schools Shawn Carter recently initiated inspections of school bleachers, and the Macon County School Board has requested experts to assess them.
“If y’all will remember, I had Evan White do an inspection at the bleachers at Pat Parker, and over at Red Boiling Springs,” Carter said at a school board meeting March 11. “Because the longevity letter that was in place to allow use of the bleachers is set to expire. So, he did the inspections, and returned with his recommendations for things to fix. Our maintenance department has fixed what they can, and I was holding off on the others to see what direction we were going to go. I didn’t want to spend a great deal of money on the bleachers if we were going to explore the chance of perhaps building a stadium, but that was going to depend on the vocational school, which we haven’t gotten an answer for yet. So we do need to make some repairs to the stadium and (inspector) Evan (White) is here to go over that with you all.”
White said, “We looked at everything about a year ago, and I gave a year that I would be comfortable with things. We have water issues that have caused damage that needs addressed. In both Lafayette and Red Boiling Springs schools, water is pouring into the interior blocks of the stadiums. We can take care of that. We are working with Upland on all the schools, and at this time I’d like to have their structural guy come in and also do an assessment on both stadiums. The blocks are either at their life, or passed their life. Average is about 50 years, and that’s without water running down through them.”
White advised the school board on different measures that can be taken.
“I’m a little more concerned about the visitors’ side at Red Boiling Springs,” said White. “The center wall is my main concern about that. We can either structurally support it with additional blocks like we did at Macon County back in 2010/2013, or you can go with aluminum type bleachers. For what we’re seeing on prices, you all may be better off going with the aluminum bleachers. Those are for life. They can be moved if needed. They meet codes, and are installed on a new foundation.”
Carter said, “You and I had a conversation after the first inspection, and as long as we make the corrections, and keep up maintenance on them and the yearly inspections, we can still use them for a period of time, correct?”
White said, “Yes, but that would only be year to year, and I’d like to bring in Upland’s structural guy to confirm that with their expertise.”
The board decided to advertise for bids and to include having Upland structural experts to assess what White advised to be concerning regarding the bleachers. Director of schools, Carter added that the bids would based on the results of further inspections.
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