DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / December 2, 2000

LUTCHER – Damage and unfinished work at the Romeville Elementary School kitchen is still a concern for the St. James School Board.Included in the administrative report at Tuesday’s St. James Parish SchoolBoard meeting was a list of damaged appliances in the kitchen. The lack oflighting around the dishwashing station was also brought up by board member Charles Nassar. Having no lighting above the station is potentiallydangerous, said Nassar. Currently the contractor, Clyde Bourgeois, isfixing the ceiling as per the state health department’s request. With theceiling in disrepair, there was nothing to attach temporary lighting to.

Bourgeois, the regular contractor for school system’s food services department, also compiled the list of damaged appliances and good ones in the kitchen. The damages were incurred by Gallo Mechanical Contractors,which had been replacing the roof and air conditioning systems over the summer.

Food was rotted after the power was cut to the freezers, the walk-in cooler ceiling panels were bent due to excessive weight placed on them and appliances were dropped or had things fall on them. Gates on bothdriveways were bent up, allegedly by the contractors backhoe, according to Bourgeois.

Ruth Reulet, director of food services, was disappointed the school was simply not contacted before the damage was done. “We could have moved alot of the items and put the food in storage,” said Reulet.

Members of the school system met with Gallo and are working to iron out the possible damages before final payment for the renovations are made.

“We all walked through with the contractors,” said Jim Mitchell, director of budgets.

Gallo is currently looking over the list of damaged property to see if they are liable. If the contractors agree to the damages, they compensationwill likely come out of their final payment from the school system, said Mitchell.

Reulet also informed the board many of the schools are saving money in their cafeterias by using disposable dishes and silverware. Lutcher High,Lutcher Junior High, Paulina Elementary, St. James High, St. James JuniorHigh, Vacherie Elementary and Vacherie Primary have all cut costs by throwing away their dishes. With a lack of cafeteria workers interested inpart-time work, the disposables are helping the schools by saving them some $8,000 to $9,000 a year per cafeteria.

Reulet also requested the board declare an open position at Paulina Elementary for a food technician. Currently there are only two full-timeworkers to handle roughly 460 meals a day at the school.

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