Rural school projects stalled

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 | 5:48 a.m.

"I thought we were going to have a ribbon cutting, but we haven't even started the school yet," Guinn said Wednesday during a Board of Examiners meeting. "Why can't we build an eight-room to 12-room school in 20 months and get the kids in there?"

Two years ago, Guinn found $16 million in the state budget to allow the state to build three new rural schools - one in Lincoln County and the others in Lund and Paradise Valley in White Pine County.

Guinn and the Legislature agreed to build the schools with state money because the counties are losing population and suffering through a recession.

While the Lincoln County school is being constructed, the two others are not. Last month the low bid for the two schools was $8.3 million, about $800,000 more than estimates.

The state Public Works Board will seek new bids next month, proposing a full-scale $6 million school for 108 students in Lund and a scaled-down $1.1 million school in Pleasant Valley, near the Utah border.

Guinn also was irked because the White Pine School District originally projected 150-200 students for Pleasant Valley. But now there are just 14 elementary and 17 high school students from the area.

He questioned whether the state Public Works Board spent too much time trying to please the school district by putting in features not needed for a small rural school. The board oversees state building projects.