Bidding re-opened for Penderlea School, initial bidding incomplete

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — One of the school bond projects for Pender County is facing a new obstacle.

A Pender County Schools spokeswoman said the first round of bidding for the new Penderlea School was unsuccessful. Bidding documents from that first round also show the initial bids put the whole project over budget.

“It’s a lot to do with the teachers more than the building,” Parent Dean Rivenbark said.

Parent Dean Rivenbark said the building may be old, but there is something more to Penderlea that his son loves.

“I couldn’t drag him away from here,” Rivenbark said. “That’s the way most of the parents up here feel.”

That is why many parents have been advocating for renovations for Penderlea since before the school bond referendum was even put on the ballot in 2014.

“The community is heavily involved here,” Rivenbark said.

While a new school is now in the works as a part of that bond, the board of education is facing some obstacles.

“It seems like it’s on and on and keeps going on and on,” Rivenbark said.

In the first round of bidding for the new school, spokeswoman Miranda Roberts said some of the individual items in the overall project did not get enough bids to move forward by law. Roberts said some of the bids they did get were over budget and some of them were under budget.

Bid Tabulation Sheet Sept. 3 (Photo: Pender County)

According to the bidding documents from the first round that were sent to the county on September 3, the total cost of the project is over budget by $2.5 million.

“I mean it’s kind of like they say everything is politics and I think that’s what it boils down to,” Rivenbark said.

While the board of education re-opens the bidding waiting for more options, parents like Rivenbark are still waiting for the upgrades the students deserve.

“They just don’t have things here that they should have,” Rivenbark said.

The Pender County attorney said the board of commissioners has asked for an update from the school board at the commission meeting on Sept. 19.