The award of a $139,712 contract for the construction of utilities at Sherman Institute, Riverside, California, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.
Operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Sherman offers a special program for Indian youth whose educational background is severely limited. Most of the 1,000 students in attendance come from reservations in the Southwest. Many have had only a smattering of elementary schooling--some because there have not been enough public or Bureau-operated classroom seats to accommodate them, and some because they live in remote areas inaccessible to school buses.
The school is staffed with a faculty trained in teaching English as a second language, counselor’s expert in helping the shy and the bewildered to adjust to the discipline of daily classes, and vocational instructors to prepare the Indian youth for gainful occupations.
One of its most urgent needs has been for modernized utilities. The new construction contract calls for installation of modern water and sewer lines and fire hydrants and related work. Successful bidder was Longley Construction Company, Inc., of Las Vegas, Nevada. Two higher bids were in the amounts of $144,725 and $155,446.
