To help provide an additional measure of safety in schools throughout Forrest County and Petal, members of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors are reviewing bids for construction of the first of 12 safe rooms at schools around the county.
First up on that list is Dixie Attendance Center, for which supervisors recently received three bids for the construction of a room: $1.02 million from Hanco Corporation in Hattiesburg, $1.06 million from Chris Albritton Construction in Laurel and $898,600 from Reeves Construction in Laurel. Supervisors are expected to discuss the bids and award construction to the chosen bidder at the next board meeting.
The safe room at Dixie Attendance Center will be available during school hours for students and faculty in the event of inclement weather or other emergencies. The facility will be built to accommodate up to 800 people, and will be capable of withstanding 200-mile-per-hour winds.
“The board believes it’s a great tool in ensuring parents that their children will be safe at school,” said David Hogan, president of the Forrest County Board of Supervisors. “When you think about parents trying to race to school to pick up their children in inclement weather, or the (school) buses being out on the road in bad weather, this will be a great tool to keep the community safer.
“Once these are in place, the children will actually be in the safest place possible for bad weather. It’s just going to solve a lot of problems.”
Dixie Attendance Center’s safe room comes courtesy of the first of three grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The second FEMA grant will help fund a safe room at Forrest County Agricultural High School, while the third will help cover the other 10 schools in the districts.
The FEMA grants will cover 90 percent of the cost of the safe rooms, with the county and school districts covering the other 10 percent.
“I met with the federal delegation, and we’re waiting on approval for the second phase (of grants),” Hogan said.
Brian Freeman, superintendent of the Forrest County School District, said school officials are happy to be able to provide another level of protection for students and staff during severe weather situations.
“Once we can get (the safe rooms) completed throughout the district, it’ll be something that we can put our students and faculty in, and know that weather will always be an issue, but they’ll be protected and safe,” he said. “So we’re excited about it.”
