The Lincoln County School Board voted Monday to reimburse a buscompany nearly $2,000 because of a company accounting error.

Burroughs Bus Sale Inc. notified Superintendent Terry Bristerlate last month that it had made a $1,712 error in a bus sale andwas requesting additional money. Burroughs had quoted a price of$52,512 in submitting the winning bid for the sale but asked foronly $50,800 when billing for the bus.

“We’re running the bus now,” Brister said. “We don’t have to dothis. But if it was me, I would pay him that.”

Burroughs has won the low bid to supply the district with busesfor the past two years, Brister said. Prior to Burroughs enteringthe market, the district was only receiving bids from onecompany.

“In the future, I would like to keep that competition, and theyhave always tried to work with us,” Brister said.

In other matters, County Forester Howard Stogner again requestedthe board waive its requirement for loggers to be bonded to work onschool property. The district has approximately $20,000 worth ofsalvageable timber on the ground from Hurricane Katrina and Stognersaid he can not get a bonded logger to pick it up. Waiving the bondwould open up the project to many more loggers, he said.

Brister told the board he did not recommend waiving the bondrequirement.

“If they’re not bonded, we’re taking a chance. If they’re notbonded, we’re not protected,” he said. “We could get $10,000, butit could cost us a million.”

The superintendent said he had looked into whether a writtenagreement with a logger freeing the district from liability couldsolve the issue. However, he said, he was told by attorneys that awritten agreement without bonding was not binding and, furthermore,would not prevent the family of anyone injured from suing thedistrict should an accident occur.

“It’s just not a good idea, in my opinion,” Brister said. “I seeit going to waste, and I hate to see that, but you can’t take thatchance.”

The district agreed and left the policy in place.