By FULLER ROYAL
The Columbus County Schools will find out today if Progress Energy’s new rules and fees for moving houses endangers the house-building projects at South and West Columbus high schools.
According to the vocational instructors in charge of the house projects at each of the schools, Progress Energy has toughened the requirements and increased the expense of moving houses, a move that throws into question the viability of the popular and successful projects that allow students the hands-on experience of constructing a house and then plumbing and wiring it.
During its Sept. 5 meeting, the Columbus County Board of Education heard from Carlton Campbell and Jimmy Johnson, the vocational instructors at WCHS and SCHS respectively.
Campbell reported that Progress Energy had lowered the allowable height of a house being moved to 18 feet, including the rails it’s being transported on.
He said, also, that the fee Progress Energy was going to charge would be $15,000 per house. That’s on top of the mover’s fee of $7,000.
A Progress Energy spokesman, scheduled to appear at the meeting, failed to show leaving the Board and Superintendent Dan Strickland in a lurch. Strickland was hoping that the two high schools would have a definite idea of what they can and can’t do last week.
Work should have started on both projects by now.
If Progress Energy’s new moving fee and requirements are too prohibitive, the board might decide to end the house projects.
To make the houses fit the height requirement, Campbell said that they would no longer be able to include a “bonus room,” a selling point for both schools.
Campbell showed board members what a house would look like with the lower pitched roof, adding that it would be hard to sell.
Board attorney Bill Phipps said houses with lower pitched roofs are more prone to leaking from torrential wind and rain.
“The houses these schools are building are the best thing they do,” Campbell said. “The house project gives them hands on experience.”
Vocation education director Keith Jefferies said the lowest lines Progress Energy has on the roads are 18 feet.
“We build houses that are six or seven feet above that,” Jefferies said. “I don’t know how we can build below that.”
Campbell said that Brunswick Electric Membership Cooperative has no problem helping move houses.
“They bend over backwards and are very willing to work with us.”
Campbell said he was afraid that he might have to cut off part of the roof of last year’s house, which had not yet been moved off the WCHS lot.
“That could cut into the stairwell and the web-bracing,” he said. “If we try to meet the Progress Energy regulations, we will have to go with the kind of truss that will not attract a buyer.”
SCHS Principal Maudie Davis was present, concerned that the house for this year hasn’t been started.
“Do we even build a house this year?” she said. “We need some guidelines.”
Board member Ricky Bullard said he has always enjoyed the house projects.
“I don’t want to see it discontinued,” he said. “I am disappointed that Progress Energy is not here tonight.”
The News Reporter was unable to make contact with the Progress Energy representative assigned to the situation.
Strickland said Progress Energy plans to have its final word on the fees and regulations today.