By By Sheila Blackmon/The Meridian Star
Dec. 15, 2000
Lauderdale County supervisors opened bids Thursday for improvements to sound systems at the Agri-Center and this time all the equipment is made by Peavey Electronics.
The action may help ease a tempest caused when another system was installed in the Agri-Center, even though Peavey is based in Meridian.
Four bids ranging from $16,960 to $21,612 were submitted for sound systems in four different areas the main bleachers, concession area, portable bleachers and the outside warm-up area.
Agri-Center advisory board member Connie Royal told supervisors in early November the sound system needed improvements. She said the manufacturer's retail price on the system was $29,000, but anticipated bids coming in lower.
Representatives of the four companies whose bids were opened Thursday Peavey Melody Music of Meridian, Morrison Brothers Music of Ridgeland, and Mississippi Music and Sound and Communication of Jackson said the bids they submitted were for Peavey equipment.
Bob Holcomb, a salesman at Peavey Melody Music who helped prepare the bid, said the bid advertisement didn't specify Peavey equipment because supervisors can't legally specify a brand in a bid.
The Peavey Melody Music bid came in at $18,397, while Mississippi Music's bid totaled $18,151. Morrison Brothers Music submitted the lowest bid.
He said dealing in several lines of equipment keeps the company from having to go through a middle man who might get the equipment from the factory, raise the price and re-sell it.
Earlier this year company president Hartley Peavey interrupted his presentation of the Hartley D. Peavey Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the Agri-Center to express his disappointment in community leaders' not using hometown produced Peavey equipment in the center's sound system.
Board of Supervisors president Hank Florey said he didn't blame Peavey for feeling that way, but it was "one of those things that we should have watched closer and just let it slip through our fingers."
Sheila Blackmon is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail her at sblackmon@themeridianstar.com.