Hiring A Gunslinger
Part 3 of A Continuing Series. (Click here for the start of the series.)
The background on this tactic was the subject of a post after a May 19 Commissioners' Meeting. It is recommended that you check it out. (click here for background)
The commissioners never took the so called "Hite Plan" for renovations at Lee County Senior High seriously. After the loss of their chairman, they realized they just couldn't take the blame. They needed cover--someone to say that all that money the board of education has asked for the renovations was too much. They needed their own engineering company--cover for never sitting down with the school board to be thoroughly briefed on the Hite plan despite requests by the school board to do so.
So the rush began to get their own engineers on site to address the concerns. Apparently no written request for proposals or scope of work was issued. Discussions were handled by phone. From correspondence the companies and individuals who responded considered review of the Hite plan and ways to shave dollars from it a key part of their job. Of course, the sales tax failure had killed the Hite plan anyway.
By the time of the commissioners last meeting, however, bless their children-loving hearts, they wanted to make sure that the students were safe. "We just have to take care of any issues of health and safety." How could they lose on that one. If their consultant reported there were really no serious health and safety concerns, then all that was just made up by LCHS supporters. Or, if they found serious health and safety concerns, it would be obvious that the school board had not been doing its job.
Either way Jerry Lemmond could travel around and say "Golly, we've just done all we could for Lee County High School."
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