PEA RIDGE — Surveillance cameras will be installed in both Pea Ridge High School and Pea Ridge Middle School after School Board members approved a recommendation by superintendent Mike Van Dyke to accept the low bid of $97,753 from Dunke Fire and Security for the cameras and surveillance system.
Van Dyke told the board he had advertised for bids and received three bids. Those bids were opened Dec. 2, he said. In addition to the bid from Dunke, bids were received from Fleming Electric of Bryant for $177,368.49 and Advanced Cabling of N. Little Rock for $141,275.
“You approved a revision to the plan for the upgrade of the Intermediate School,” Van Dyke told the board, explaining that the money that was to be used for the heating and air would be used for the surveillance system.
“Cameras will be put in strategic locations. The principals will be able to see what’s going on,” Van Dyke said, adding that the cameras can be monitored from a laptop computer anywhere Internet access is available. He said he could watch from a computer at his house.
“The alarms go off sometimes on the weekend,” he said, explaining that he could view the school buildings from a computer anywhere. “This gives us another way to see our children.”
“It’s a good bid,” Van Dyke said when asked why the bid by Dunke was so much lower than the other two. “Dunke does our fire and security now.”
“If we had bullying that went on or a complaint of a little fight or something ... we could pull the tapes and see so we can make good decisions,” he said.
News, Pages 1 on 12/15/2010