C.J.’s Electrical wins bid for school lighting project

South Terrebonne High School is finally going to receive replacement stadium lighting for its football field for the upcoming school year, thanks to C.J.’s Electrical Service Inc., which won the bid for the construction.

The total bid amount is $295,279, which includes a bid for $291,311 and an alternate bid of $3,968. The total amount will fund the removal of four damaged poles and their arms and platform assemblies, 25 fixtures, and remote ballast and enclosures of one of the poles, including any other damaged appurtenances, according to the Buildings, Food Service and Transportation Committee recommendation. The funds will be made available from the Building Fund.

“A whole pole fell after Katrina, and when we inspected the other poles, we noticed they were all cracked at the base,” said Hayes J. Badeaux, chairman of the Terrebonne Parish School Board. “It was a very dangerous situation, so we have to replace all the poles, and we were fortunate no one was hurt because the pole fell when no one was around.”

According to Badeaux, the field was condemned until all the damaged poles were removed.

“We wouldn’t let anyone else on the field until we took the poles down, but we were able to practice and do what we needed to do after that because the soccer season was over and nothing was going on after we noticed what has happening,” he said.

C.J.’s Electrical Service promises to have all the lighting up in time for football season.

“Our timeline is Aug. 17 that we are looking to have everything in operation,” said Greg Marie, vice president of C.J.’s Electrical Service, who attended last Tuesday’s school board meeting. “We will have a general contractor out of Thibodaux that will be taking care of the pile driving, concrete mixtures and doing the pouring of the concrete.”

Marie assured the board that everything should be on schedule in the upcoming months.

“We will have a meeting on site with subcontractors to get a good timeline together, and they will have material coming to us within 10 days once they are ordered somewhere in early August,” he said. “We are trying to expedite as quick as possible.”

Toward the end of August, the two teams that share the stadium – South Terrebonne and Ellender Memorial high schools – will resume practice and games as usual.

“By the time school starts, we’ll be back in business,” said Badeaux.