Elk Lake/SCCTC board reorganizes

BY PAT FARNELLI

The Elk Lake School Board reorganized Thursday night, and five members were sworn in for new terms withChuck Placeelected president, and Arden Tewksbury as vice president.

Matt Curley, Anne Teel, Harold Bender, Alice Carr and Place had been re-elected in November.

The Susquehanna County Career and Technology Center board also reorganized, along the same lines.

The new traffic patterns for student drop-offs were discussed, and also an observation was made that students are darting around the buses.

A capital projects payment for pool repairs was approved for $130,000, and another for $165,000, with a total price of $295,000.

It was announced that the swimming pool is now functioning better than ever, with the ventilation system completely functional, the humidity under control, and the new filtration system installed, as well as the unit on the roof.

Capital projects payments were also approved for the SCCTC expansion project: Leber & Bonham, $20,386.53; Master Mechanical Corp., $70,261.69; Bognet, Inc., $29,966.58; and Mar-Paul Company, Inc, $299,141.45.

An agenda item to award a bid for door replacement was tabled to the next meeting, as Superintendent William Bush said that they may have to ask the contractors to rebid. Bids were received from Sterling Glass, Scranton, for $255,000, and from Mesko Glass and Mirror, Avoca, for $269,000. Previous doors that were bid last year were awarded to Precision Glass, for seven doors at an average price of $8,556.43. Bids for the most recent doors needing replacement were sent to Home, Mirror and Glass Co. of Scranton; Interstate Building Materials of Pittston, Precision Glass Co. of New Milford, and Williams Doors and Hardware of Vestal. None of these companies responded with a bid.

Last month, Bush asked the board for permission to proceed with a roof replacement project using capital project funds. The board approved the roof replacement project for the summer of 2013 using capital project funds.

This month, he said that an additional payment of $6,500 was requested by the contractors who worked on the previous roofing project, to finish off a small area.

The board did not approve an additional payment over the amount originally bid on that project. Also, there was another additional bill for asphalt paving submitted, which Dr. Bush again commented that the board was under no obligation to pay. The additional amount was $19,488, and the board did not approve further reimbursement of the contractors beyond what they had bid for the contract.

Board members recommended getting a flashing hazard sign at the new driveway exiting the property, and board member Teel said that she was approached about putting an Elk Lake School sign at the turn onto the school road. She was informed that a sign had been installed there and existed for many years, until a snow plow hit it and “it went up in flames.”

In other business, The Career and Technology Center was approved to become a Marcellus ShaleNET Training Provider.

Chuck Place noted that the Chesapeake Energy company did a nice job scheduling gas well traffic around the school bus schedule in his neck of the woods.

“They implemented a schedule to let the buses through,” he said.

Bids were awarded for the windows on House #3.

The spring play will be “60’s Mania,” it was announced.

The Susquehanna County Tax Claim Bureau informed the board that a trailer in Auburn Township has been through two tax sales, with an assessed value of $3,700 and a minimum bid of $569. The property has O.O acres. The board approved the selling of the property for any price.

Several visitors attended the meeting to discuss the recent Credit Union Reality Fair. SCCTC’s Lisa Smith reported on the event, which provides students with an opportunity to create a personal expense budget, using a hypothetical salary. The students had to make decisions based on their income, including choices for housing, food, transportation and entertainment, as well as savings. One student talked about the choices he and fellow students made, as well as real life applications. He said that his needs are fairly simple, so he was the only one who chose a land line rather than a cellphone or I Phone, and he ended up $200 in the green, he said.