At its Dec. 10 monthly meeting, the Cumberland County Board of Supervisors (BOS) approved the issuance of an Intent to Award letter to two contractors for the replacement of the Cumberland County Elementary School (CCES) flooring.

An initial request for proposals was issued Oct. 18. After a pre-proposal conference held on-site Nov. 1 with nine contractors and five county and school division personnel in attendance, the county received three proposals prior to the Dec. 2 deadline.

After a review of the proposals and professional performance references submitted by the companies, the procurement team consisting of four county employees and two school division employees selected two proposals to award contracts with.

The selected proposal for the main area flooring in the amount of $191,588.79 was submitted by JLM Enterprises of Virginia, DBA Walker’s Carpets. The proposal involves a process of removing all existing carpet and vinyl composite tile (VCT) in all areas of the school as well as the installation of new VCT in the main school areas, minus the gym. The proposed price includes the additional proposal amount to remove and reinstall the education equipment and supplies as the project progresses.

The selected proposal for the elementary school’s gymnasium flooring in the amount of $45,960 was submitted by the company Recreational Plus. The proposal includes removing the existing carpet of the gymnasium and installing a resilient sports flooring product. This proposal required no amount for education materials removal and reinstallation, as the gym will be cleared prior to the beginning of construction to use the area for product acclimation and staging.

CCES Principal Virginia Gills and Cumberland County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Amy Griffin were both present at the board meeting Tuesday night when the funds totalling $237,548.79 were approved by the board.

“I thought I was going to cry,” Gills said in reference to the board’s approval of the funds. “We’re so grateful for it and it may not seem like a big deal to others, but at elementary school, our children, we start at three years old, and it’s appropriate to spend a lot of time on the floor. And we spend a lot of time on the floor. I mean, it’s very significant to us, so we just feel very blessed that the BOS and our school board had this in a priority position and we were able to get the funding for that.”

“I am excited that the BOS approved the bids for floor replacement at CCES,” said Griffin. “The existing floors, including the carpet throughout much of the building, was installed in 1996 when the school was built.  Needless to say, it is time to replace the carpet that has had approximately 500-700 students walk across and utilize daily over the past 24 years.  Over this period of time, the carpet floor ‘held up’ and was well maintained.  However, it is now showing its age and need for replacement. Recognizing the need, the school division set aside $170,000 at the end of the 2018-2019 school year to go towards the floor replacement and lessen costs to the county.”