Board approves new floors, bleachers at Crest and Burns high schools – Shelby Star

Dustin George|The Shelby Star

Two Cleveland County high school gyms will have a fresh new look later this year.

The Board of Education voted on Monday to approve a project to replace gym floors and bleachers at Burns and Crest high schools. The projects, which will cost around $484,000, will be completed by H2I Group, a national contractor company which has been in business for over 90 years. The final price includes a $30,000 contingency should any repairs need to be done to the concrete underneath the gym floors.

H2I Group was one of four companies to bid for the gym floor project and one of only three to bid for bleacher replacement projects at both schools. It was one of only two companies to submit a combined bid for both schools.It's combined bid was nearly $21,000 lower than the only other bid, placed by Southern Floor, a contractor out of South Carolina.

Replacing the floors has been a key priority for the district over the last year.

The floors really need replacing, said board member Danny Blanton, who, along with board chair Robert Queen and member Greg Taylor visited Crest ahead of Mondays meeting.

There are visible humps and cracks between the boards ...The bleachers are the original equipment,that's when the schools was built over 50 years ago. They've had plastic covers simply put over the original structures," Blanton said.

Board members did not visit Burns before the meeting, but Blanton said the floors and bleachers are the same age and in similar states of disrepair.

"We expect the floors at Burns will need to be replaced in the very near future. We do save money by replacing the floors and bleachers at both schools at the same time, he said.

Work on the gym floors will being later this year, following a pair of projects to install new HVAC and humidity control units in both gyms. Those projects were approved by the board in October and will be necessary to keep the new floors warrantied if anything should go wrong after they are installed.

The HVAC projects will begin at the conclusion of the current basketball season and should be completed by summer. The new floors and bleachers will begin after that work is finished.As the floors are removed, both schools will sellpieces of them to raise money for their respective athletics departments.

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Board approves new floors, bleachers at Crest and Burns high schools - Shelby Star