CARIBOU, Maine — As part of the many negotiations involved with a proposed new preK-8 school building near Teague Park, the RSU 39 board considered exchanging land at Hilltop Elementary and the former Sincock School for city-owned land near the identified construction site.
“When and if we do this land swap between Teague Park and this location,” said Caribou Superintendent Timothy Doak during the Nov. 18 meeting, adding “there will have to be a yellow book value applied to that. So let’s say this piece of land is worth less than Teague Park’s land. If that’s the case, then we may have to give up extra land to the town to make up the difference in value.”
Superintendent Doak told the board how he was recently inspired while driving past the shuttered school on Sincock Street that had most recently served as office space for district-level administration services.
“We own that land,” said Doak. “I was throwing out the idea that maybe we could give that piece of parcel to the town to offset this land trade. I think if you need to give an acre of land to make up the difference in value, you might have to give up four or five acres of wetlands to make up the difference. There are some wetlands behind the high school, but when I looked at what the RSU owns, we still own the land on Sincock Street, which I think would make a great place for a park. We still own some land around Hilltop, and that could also be land we give to the town. The Building Committee thought the Sincock idea was great. I just need know if the board feels the same way, and if it gets to that point, I’d like to have a motion that you’d entertain swapping the land at Sincock street,” Doak said.
“If Sincock were to be included in that swap,” asked Board Member Clifford Rhome, “does that mean the state would pay for the demolition of Sincock? And if that’s the case, why wouldn’t we give the piece of land that Hilltop School is sitting on so they could also demolish that?”
The RSU 39 board accepted a motion to offer up the Sincock field and, if needed, the RSU-owned land at Hilltop.
“This clears that hurdle,” said Board Chair John Sjostedt, “now we just need to hear from City Council.”
