RISON - After seeking bids to provide pest control and lawn care services for the school campuses, the Cleveland County School Board decided Monday night to do some more exploring.During the February board meeting, Superintendent Jerrod Williams revealed the bids the district had received for mowing and maintaining the grounds at both the Rison and Kingsland school campuses. All those bids came back higher than what the board was willing to pay, so Williams was asked to come back with some other proposals, including the possibility of the district buying the equipment to do it itself.Williams revealed those proposals during Monday night's regular monthly meeting, and the board was still reluctant to make a decision. His options were for the district to do it, for the contractors currently working for the Head Start to continue as they are, and to completely re-bid the service without stating a specific number of mowings throughout the year.Some of the biggest concerns about the district taking it on were finding someone who would stay with the district over the long term to do the job, and the cost of having to maintain the equipment as well as buy a truck to transport the equipment from campus to campus.Eventually, the board decided to put the lawncare jobs back out for bid, but this time the bid request would not list a specific number of mowings. Instead, it would request a cost to mow a specific area and the district would request those services as needed.Board member William King's motion to re-bid the lawncare services was approved by a 5-1 vote. Helen Browning voted against it while Tony White was not at the meeting.Davy King, the district's director of maintenance, said he would reach out to those who had previously submitted lawn care bids as well as those who have been doing the lawn care for the district. Williams said the board needs to make a decision soon since the grass and weeds are starting to grow.It was a similar situation with the pest control…
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