Trigg County High School’s Perdue Field will have new lights soon, but not before the TCHS 2011 football season begins next month. The school board chose a contractor for the project on Thursday. The lights should be in operation when the Wildcats return home on Sept. 30.
The board chose Jay’s Electric, who will use Musco Lighting, and although they chose not to have the warranty, they did take the wiring option, for a total cost of $169,371.78. Knight’s Electric bid $170,628 with the same specifications.
Jay’s Electric crews will remove the existing lights and poles and will install new ones, and they will also replace all of the underground wiring to the poles, Trigg County School Superintendent Travis Hamby said.
There was much discussion of this issue at the board’s Thursday, July 14, regular meeting, largely because, as Project Engineer Thomas Haldron said, a Universal Sports Lighting representative didn’t look at the bid specifications and instead went on word of mouth and bid the project based on standard specifications instead of the specifications required for Perdue Field.
Because of this, the original Jay’s Electric and Knight Electric bids were almost $50,000 apart.
The emergency BG-1 called for up to $206,188 to be spent on the project.
At the board’s Monday, July 18, special called morning meeting, Hamby said they should they have the two contractors submit bids using Musco Lighting and Hubbell Lighting. Only Jay’s Electric bid using both Musco and Hubbell Lighting.
At the board’s last regular meeting, Haldron assured board members that contractors can have it finished by the middle of September, although they will miss the first few home football games.
Hamby said wind had knocked down at least a couple of the crossbeams and that the old poles were safe but couldn’t be certified for new lighting. This is why it was labeled an emergency BG-1, as there was the chance more crossbeams could fall, he added.
