Phase One of the Houlton Community Arts Center has begun

After years of planning, hundreds of hours of meetings and thousands of dollars in donations, the work of the Houlton Community Arts Center Council and the SAD 29 school board, administration and staff is finally coming together to kick off a major change at Houlton High School. This month has just begun, but major changes in the auditorium at the high school have already taken place.

    The seats that have been there since 1965, many of them damaged with overuse, are being removed and the metal recycled. Stage curtains have come down ready to send away to be cleaned and repaired and the thousands of dollars in lighting and sound are being stored away awaiting the newly renovated auditorium. Junior and senior high music students have been working diligently to move music libraries, instruments, stage-related items and lots of theater sets that have been collected and used over the years.
“This is a major cleaning out task for the music staff and the fact that we have to empty our entire music area, including every inch of the auditorium was pretty scary,” said Joe Fagnant, SAD 29 Music Department Chair. “If it was not for the student work force, we would still be emptying this place well into July, but our timeline is to hand it over to the contractors by June 18th. This is an extremely challenging schedule.”
The entire music area, cafeteria and auditorium are the last sections to be renovated with upgrades in heating, ventilation and efficient lighting. Other areas of the facility were completed over past summers, and out of the need to finish the final area of the building, the partnership of HCACC (Houlton Community Arts Center Council) and SAD 29 moved forward the Houlton Community Arts Center plan at an aggressive pace.
“We found it more cost effective to combine the efforts and do one stage of construction in order to meet both the school needs and also begin the monumental task of changing the facility for the future of community needs,” said Steve Fitzpatrick, superintendent of schools for SAD 29. “All together we are upgrading efficiencies, improving our cafeteria, addressing safety with better egress and sprinkling and also meeting some of the concerns we saw in the items in the accreditation reports. The private help from HCAC brings about changes to the facility that would not be possible if we did this alone.”
With investment from both public and private funds coming together changes will include: new safer entry from the main parking lot, enhanced entry corridor, electrical and equipment upgrades in the kitchen and cafeteria, a total redesign and renovation of the auditorium to include more seats, larger stage and newer technologies. As part of the project, the history area will be redone to meet accreditation needs, sprinkling will be installed in the building, and asbestos will be removed in the remaining areas of the school.
As summer comes to an end and classes start, work will still be ongoing in the auditorium with the goal of having everything complete by the time the annual fall musical takes place at HHS in November.
“This is going to be a challenging summer into the new school year,” explained Fagnant. “We use the auditorium every day for classes and storage. We know that by starting this project now we have saved money, but we will definitely look forward to the next phase of building out of 13,000 square feet of new classroom space. The good news is that with this partnership the auditorium will be state of the art and the present facility will be more efficient with lighting and heating.
“The concern is that the facility will still be overburdened with community and school equipment, music libraries and will still have struggles with finding space for rehearsals and special events,” Fagnant added. “When we do the next phase, there will be more room for all parties to enjoy the final vision of the Houlton Community Arts Center: a multi use and multi functional community building. There are lots of people investing time, energy and finances into this project and I am so pleased with the generosity of this community. I know the final phases of the project will need more financial support, and this southern Aroostook area will come together to make it happen.”
The community can get involved immediately with this project by buying new auditorium seats.  Mike and Debbie Clark are spearheading this campaign and can be reached at 532-7148. Seats can be purchased and named for $300 for one, $550 for two or three seats or more at $250 each. All seats will have donor plaques on the arms and also a special donor plaque in the hallway outside the auditorium.
More information about the project, including pictures and architectural renderings are found at www.houltonarts.org. Donations and organizational information, including how to buy seats can be received by visiting the Web site or calling 1-888-422-1278 (1-888-HCA-1ART).