Stephens Co. BOE Approves Plan to Buy New Lift

The Stephens County school system will head out to bid on the search for a new piece of lift equipment that will help meet maintenance needs at Stephens County High School.

On Tuesday, the Stephens County Board of Education voted unanimously to give staff permission to seek requests for proposals, or RFP’s, for a new lift.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that while the equipment could be used throughout the school system, the high school’s needs are driving this demand.

Dorsey said the school system does not currently have the equipment or ability to do things like change light bulbs in numerous areas of the high school.

He said one of those areas is the Currahee Arena.

“Our high school gym is about 50 feet from floor to ceiling,” said Dorsey, who said the ceiling has to be accessed from the gym floor. “Not only do we need a lift that will go up 50 feet, but we need one that will extend to the left or right quite a bit.”

According to Dorsey, the Tugaloo Center for the Performing Arts and the cafeteria are two other areas where a new lift will be needed for changing light bulbs and ceiling tiles, along with cleaning windows.

Dorsey said he expects the piece of equipment to cost no less than $175,000.

Money for the purchase is coming out of bond money taken out for the school system earlier this year by the Stephens County Schools Building Authority.

According to school system staff, they hope to have bids to look at for approval by the school board perhaps in November.

Also on Tuesday, the Stephens County Board of Education voted unanimously to give staff permission to have steps built from the outside going into the Currahee Arena, where people enter for high school basketball games.

Dorsey said that the steps are needed for safety and convenience reasons and he hopes that the project will be done by the start of basketball season.

Money for that will also come from that Building Authority bond.