Jackson County is seeking a new architectural design firm for its Blue Ridge School renovation and Smoky Mountain Middle School project, which Jackson County Public Schools places high on its capital improvement priority list.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it; I’m real aggravated with the whole project,” said to Commissioner Todd Bryson in reference budget estimates provided by Pinnacle Architecture, which have ballooned since the Smoky Mountain Middle School project’s inception.
County Manager Kevin King said Pinnacle Architecture has been removed as the architectural firm for Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain Middle School projects but remains in place for the Smoky Mountain High School track-and-field and Fairview Elementary renovation projects. Both the track and field and elementary projects are expected to stay on budget.
To date, the county has allocated $15 million and $60 million, respectively, to the Blue Ridge School and the Smoky Mountains Middle School projects.
Of the $60 million allocated to the Smoky Mountain Middle School project, $52 million comes from grant money provided by North Carolina Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, and construction for the project must break ground by September 2027 or the county has to forfeit the funding back to the N.C. Department of Instruction.
Commissioners hope the redirection will help the county tackle the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain Middle School projects, especially after they rejected a $105 million school bond referendum proposal in September that would have helped the projects reach the finish line had voters approved it at the upcoming General Election.
At the Oct. 6 Board of Commissioners meeting, architecture firm LS3P representatives pitched themselves as the right people for the job, with experience working on K-12 public school projects across Western North Carolina.
At the Oct. 20 meeting, King said Cope Architecture will also pitch commissioners, after which they will decide which firm to hand the keys over to for implementation.
According to Jackson County Finance Director Darlene Fox, the county has spent $6.5 million on the Smoky Mountain Middle School project. King said switching designers at this phase in the project would not set the county back.
Bids for site-work construction are not expected until Nov. 18, and much of the groundwork that has already been laid can be handed off to the new designers smoothly.
King also said based on current estimates, he expects the county to break ground on the Smoky Mountain Middle School by the first quarter of next year.
“We’re not wasting any time. When we bring on a new designer, they’re going to have a plain canvas to work with,” he said.