It appears Lincoln County School District voters may get morecapital improvements than they expected when they approved a $3.8million bond issue in September, according to a schoolofficial.

Superintendent Perry Miller said the Lincoln County Board ofEducators received “very good” bids Wednesday.

The board was not present during the bid opening.

“We’re going to open them now and award them Monday morning atthe board meeting,” Miller said. “That gives us a few days to studythem.”

The board received five bids and had to reject a sixth when itarrived three minutes after the deadline. By law, a governmentalbody cannot accept late bids.

Paul Jackson and Son Construction turned in the lowest bid at$3,224,000.

Although the bid is well under the $3.8 million voted on, itonly covers the cost of construction. It does not cover architectsfees or demolition charges and other related costs.

“I am pleased with the results of the bid,” Miller said. “Theyare very competitive, and I think we will definitely get ourmoney’s worth.”

When the district advertised the bids, they included sixalternate projects they hoped to include, but set up the bids wherethe alternates could be removed to lower the cost if it became tooexpensive.

The six alternates included two additional classrooms at LoydStar and West Lincoln Attendance Centers, a shop building forvocational skills at West Lincoln, renovation of the gym and theaddition of air-conditioning for the gym at Bogue Chitto AttendanceCenter, and the renovation of a small brick building with fourclassrooms at Enterprise Attendance Center.

Each of those projects, Miller said, would normally be all thatthe district could afford in capital improvements in one year’stime.

“Everything we told the people we would get is without thealternates,” he said. “What we are trying to do now is get more forour money.”

Garland Wright, the architect with Architects, Engineers andAssociates who designed the plans, said the alternates had beenwishful thinking, and they were delighted with the results.

“This was all wish list stuff we put in there in the hopes wewould have the money to do it, too,” he said.

After a brief review of the bids, Miller said it appears thecounty will be able to include all of the alternates.

“At this point we still have to review it, but we feel the workis within the budget,” Miller said.

Wright agreed.

“We’re in range of what the bond issue was for, so I doubt wewill be looking at cutting any of (the alternates),” he said.

When the board asked for the bond issue, they included capitalimprovements on each of the campuses.

The bond covered a new classroom building on the Loyd Star,Enterprise and West Lincoln campuses; a new cafeteria building onthe Bogue Chitto campus; and a new office complex on the Enterprisecampus with renovations to add office space at West Lincoln.

Other improvements include updating equipment and adding twoclassrooms on the Bogue Chitto campus and demolishing buildingsbuilt in the 1930s on the Loyd Star campus and an old gym on theWest Lincoln campus.

The old cafeteria on the Bogue Chitto campus will be keptavailable for future needs, Miller said, possibly a band hall ormore classrooms. Two new classrooms are included in the newcafeteria building.