Bedford County officials say they were mystified by figures released this week by a state agency regarding local infrastructure.

That's because the numbers, released Monday by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR), were found to be in error when the T-G began asking local officials about them.

TACIR issued a press release earlier this week directing reporters to a new study of infrastructure needs in each Tennessee county. According to that study, Bedford County ranked number one in school building needs per student.

The report stated that schools in the county need $159.9 million in new infrastructure -- which had School Superintendent Ed Gray wondering where TACIR got its figures.

However, Catherine Corley, senior research associate with TACIR, told the T-G late Wednesday that they would be re-releasing the information concerning Bedford County, "because we found an error in the school data."

Corley said the error was discovered after the T-G inquired about the discrepancy between the data released by TACIR and the information that Gray had.

She said her office had contacted the South Tennessee Development District and found that the school needs "were misreported." She added the new data would be available today and that the Bedford County report would be corrected.

Gray says he fills out an infrastructure report every year "but these numbers don't match what I filled out." He said he puts down what the system needs and what they are currently assessing, but that the $159.9 million figure was "staggering" to him. The county is currently in the first few years of a 10-year building program estimated to cost about $83 million total.

Gray had been trying to learn where the TACIR figures originated since reading the report earlier this week, adding that he also took the report to County Executive Eugene Ray for examination. Gray added that he was hesitant to address the $159.9 million figure until he knows where it came from.

Corley said they contract the data from nine local development districts in the state and that it was a human mistake that TACIR "is going to correct."

"It definitely overstated their needs by half," Corley said.

"Flabbergasted" was how Ray described his reaction when Gray showed him the TACIR report that was in error on Tuesday, adding at the time that he also did not know where TACIR got its data.

"It didn't come from us," Ray said Wednesday.

"This office [Bedford County Schools] didn't put this out as us being number one in the state ... I don't know where the $159.9 million came from," Gray said. The superintendent also stated he was surprised by the report's claims that the county is number one in building needs.

"I realize we have definite needs, but as of right now, the county commission have addressed the most pressing of our immediate needs with our construction projects."

The county's 10-year building program for schools calls for a total cost of $83 million to be spent, which includes an addition to Cascade Elementary (completed and in use), additions and renovations at Shelbyville Central High School (now under construction), a new elementary school on Learning Way (in the process of being put out for bids), a new high school at Unionville (now being designed), a new high school for Cascade, an elementary school in the northern end of the county and a middle / high school for Liberty, as well as complete athletic facilities for Community and Cascade.

The report claimed that statewide, the cost of bringing all schools and their individual components up to good condition is $1,374 per student, compared with $17,609 per student in Bedford County.

County officials reported the cost of bringing all schools including their individual components up to good condition at $124 million for the school system, the report claims.

According to the TACIR report, officials in Bedford County rated 8.3 percent of their school buildings less than good overall, which compares favorably with the statewide figure of 9 percent of school buildings that are listed in less than good condition.

The report states that Bedford County schools do have sufficient space to house the teachers and classrooms required by the smaller class-size standards of the Education Improvement Act (EIA).

Statewide, local school officials also report that 81.5 percent of all school systems have sufficient space to house the teachers and classrooms required by the smaller class-size standards first imposed by the EIA in the fall of 2001, according to TACIR.

TACIR estimates the cost of the remaining classrooms needed to house these teachers at almost $70 million statewide, a huge drop (about 86 percent, or $410 million) from the cost estimate in TACIR's last report.

According to the State of Tennessee's web site, TACIR "was created to monitor federal, state, and local government relations and to make recommendations for improvement to the Legislature. The commission is comprised of representatives from the executive and legislative branches of state government, county and municipal governments, and the public. The commission serves as a bipartisan forum for the discussion of intergovernmental issues and may initiate studies resulting in legislative proposals and constitutional amendments. The commission responds to requests for technical assistance from the General Assembly, state agencies, and local governments."

State Rep. Randy Rinks (D - Savannah) serves as chairman of TACIR, with Harry A. Green as its executive director. State Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville is a member of the commission.