CARIBOU, Maine — The committee charged with designing a locally feasible new school and park in Caribou discussed the possibilities of expanding the gym for the preK-8 school project. Having recently held a public meeting in search of community input on the project, the most commonly voiced concern was that the school needed to expand its gym.
PDT Architects of Portland is working with building committee members and presented a few CAD (Computer-aided design) sketches of what the school would look like with additional gym space during their May 13 meeting. Construction costs are estimated at $1.2 million and the project cost is roughly $1.6 million for the school as originally proposed.
If approved, the project will be entirely state funded and come at no cost to the local taxpayers of Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm. The state would pay for the new school, demolition of some older school buildings, and a new park. However, the additional gym space would have to be funded at the local level.
That additional gym space has been estimated to cost $275,000.
Members of the board are aware that, while more gym space was the major concern during one public meeting, the entire voting population of the RSU 39 area may not want to pay any additional taxes. Because of this, they have decided to make the locally-funded addition a second question that residents can choose when the school goes to referendum.
“As designers, this means we have to design it both ways,” said Alan Kuniholm of PDT Architects.
The committee is also considering the possibility of orchestrating a fundraiser to help finance the additional gym space.
“Caribou Rotary Club recently voted to dedicate some funds from their future earnings toward the school, and that came from some Rotarians at the exec committee level. They realize that the school is exciting and that it could use some additions, and are willing to commit to raising some funds toward the project,” said committee member Frank McElwain.
