Straw poll Thursday, district hopes reduced maintenance will offset building cost
CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou’s new school may cost roughly $47 million, but board members are saying taxpayers may save in the long run.
If local voters and the state board of education approve the project, a single preK-8 facility will replace four existing RSU 39 school buildings: Hilltop (preK-2), Teague Park (grades 3-5) and Caribou Middle School (grades 6-8), and the Learning Center. As a result, Alan Kuniholm, a principal with PDT Architects of Portland, says the city would see at least a $600,000 savings in terms of annual energy and maintenance costs alone.
“We’re predicting energy costs to be a little under one dollar per square foot,” said Kuniholm. “Factored in with current utility costs, there could be a $300,000 yearly savings just in energy. We would see another $300,000 savings if we factor in operational costs for boilers and maintenance work.”
The architect added that this projected $600,000 savings excludes “soft costs” such as busing to multiple facilities and insurance premiums for four separate buildings.
If local voters and the feds accept the project, Kuniholm says the Department of Education will pay for a number of oversights, such as third party engineering groups that look at indoor air quality and help manage construction. They will also hire a “clerk of the works who will be on the job every day,” he added.
“They will be our eyes and ears on the site,” said Kuniholm. “The DOE will also include special inspections and separate engineers to look at things like foundations and sprinkler systems.”
RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak said that “there will be a slight tax increase with the new school” if voters accept the additional gym and music room space.
“If we didn’t raise a cent with fundraising, the total local cost would be about $22 per hundred thousand dollar home over the course of 20 years,” Doak said. “For Limestone, it would be about $27. But with the fund-raising effort, that may be reduced to $11.”
Board member Clifford Rhome said the tax impact would likely be less than Doak’s prediction.
“It won’t be a $27 increase because of the $600,000 we’re saving,” Rhome said. “It will almost be a wash.”
Along with the potential for higher taxes, the building committee and school board were concerned about potential parking issues if any large events were to take place at the new building.
“There are limits on what the state will fund,” said Frank McElwain, chair of the Building Committee. “We’ll have a brand new school and people will end up parking up and down the street for events. The Department of Transportation doesn’t build parking lots but they were concerned about overflow impact on roads.”
Recently, Superintendent Doak met with the owner of an apartment house near the future school site who offered to sell the building to the RSU. The caveat in this situation being that local taxpayers would have to cover all the associated costs.
The board gave Doak authorization to look into the aforementioned possibility, which would give the school 50 additional parking spaces.
“You are not authorizing a purchase, but it will be looked into,” Doak told board members during a Nov. 10 meeting. “I think the Building Committee was asking for authorization for me to look into this further and do an appraisal on the apartment building to get some real numbers. It would give us a little over an acre of additional land.”
Doak said he is aware that the public will be challenging them about the parking issue during the upcoming Nov. 17 straw poll, which will be held in the Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m. If the straw poll is successful and the state approves the site design and budget, the new school will go to referendum in early February.
