BRANDON - As the FBI continues investigating a Rankin County School District land purchase, an engineering consultant for the school system denies he said a cheaper site was unsuitable for the $25 million project.
The school board apparently passed on a $15,000 per acre parcel just miles from an 81-acre site, which was eventually bought for $29,500 per acre.
The school board paid $2.4 million for the property along Mississippi 18 and will spend nearly that much on dirt work before construction begins.
School district officials say land they purchased was best suited for the school and taxpayers got the best deal possible. They said questions raised by the FBI are being answered.
Rankin County District Attorney David Clark, who confirmed that the FBI has formed a task force to investigate the land deal, is one of those questioning why the higher priced land was selected.
Others have asked the same question and say they were misled by at least one school district official.
Brandon attorneys John Toney and Will Hyche said school board members were asked during a meeting last December why they rejected the less expensive site, which has come to be known as International Paper property.
Hyche and Toney, who said they attended the meeting to protest another school bond proposal, said that when questions were raised about the land choice, Assistant Superintendent Hugh Carr said the board's engineer, Buster Parker, studied the IP land, ordered a soil boring study and eventually found the property to be unsuitable.
Carr "emphatically stated there was a soil boring done … and environmental study was done by environmental services, Buster Parker," Toney said.
Hyche said he was the one who asked Carr to name the person who had studied the property.
"His reply was that Buster was the engineer and that Burns Cooly (Dennis Inc.) had done the soil borings," Hyche said.
Parker said Friday he does not know why Carr had made the statement.
"I heard (that Carr) said I had done a study on it, but I have not done a study on it," Parker said.
Parker said he went to the site but could only walk down one edge of the wooded property because it was so thick.
He said he told school officials that a soil boring should be done. He said he did not order a soil bearing and if one was done, he was not aware of it.
Since the Associated Press first reported the FBI investigation, school officials quit commenting publicly about the issue.
All calls have been referred to School Board Attorney Fred Harrell.
Harrell did not respond to messages left at his office Friday but he has said in past interviews that there were several reasons the board passed on IP property.
Harrell has repeatedly said that the district saved $600,000 by having the seller, Ben Turnage, raise the current site out of flood plane elevation even though both people who appraised the property estimated its value subject to the site being raised.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
