City reconsiders school decision despite liability issues
CARIBOU, Maine — City Council members have reconsidered their Nov. 14 vote against waiving building permit fees for a new preK-8 school where Teague Park currently stands. On Monday night, they voted 5-1 to waive the fees.
The majority of this $45.6 million project will be funded by the state of Maine. However, a portion of the base project will come out of local taxes. At one point, local fees were for a sloped roof, but City Council’s decision not to waive the permit fees nearly doubled these expenses, bringing the total close to $300,000.
During Council’s Nov. 28 meeting, City Manager Austin Bleess cited Caribou’s requirement to enforce Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code as a potential conflict of interest if inspections are left in the hands of third-party inspectors hired by PDT Architects (a firm out of Portland).
According to Bleess, the city of Caribou has not been able to get a promise that the architects will ensure the enforcement of these standards, since the new school building committee (composed of RSU 39 School Board members, PDT Architects, and a handful of community members) is still in the planning phases of the project, and local residents have yet to vote on the issue.
“We’ve engaged in a few conversations with Superintendent Doak and the architects since the (Nov. 17) straw poll,” Bleess said in a phone interview on Monday, “and are in the process of having more discussions about the process.”
As of Monday, the RSU offers no specific comments about the issue, but said they will support the City Council whether or not they decide waive the fees.
While the permit fees were not on the recent agenda, Councilor David Martin brought up the topic for reconsideration at the end of the meeting.
“I would like to have one of the four people who voted against the building permit to reconsider,” Martin said. “There’s enough redundancy there that I feel very comfortable that we don’t need another inspection. There are three or four layers there,” Martin said.
While Mayor Gary Aiken had some reservations about waiving the permit fee when there was no guarantee about MUBEC standards, and also about the PDT hiring their own clerk of the works, Martin said the built-in inspection plan seems to be secure.
“The Clerk of the Works that you’re concerned about is not an employee of PDT Architects; it’s not the same guy at every one of their projects,” Martin said. “Plus the architects are liable for anything that happens, so they would want it done right. And for all the testing of concrete, steel and so on, we don’t have anybody here with that expertise. We’d have to hire someone to do the same thing.”
Martin added that council’s refusal to waive the building fees doubles the price of locally funded add-ons for the base project.
“And do you think we need those sloped roofs?” Aiken asked
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” said Martin
In order to undo their Nov. 14 vote, Council first needed to make a motion to reconsider, and when that passed, they needed to make a motion and vote for actually waiving the fees.
Before Council made their second vote to waive the fees, Bleess said that the city still “has responsibilities under local ordinances to do some inspections.”
“The RSU is the one responsible for that building,” said Councilor Shane McDougall. “End of story. This is totally different from someone building a garage or a house. Totally separate. We should issue a permit like we normally do for anything else.”
“Then I would like to add to the motion that we’re not inspecting the project,” Bleess said.
Councilor Phil McDonough, who voted against waiving the fees on Monday night, had some concerns about whether or not the vote would allow Caribou to properly follow ordinances.
“I asked if it was permissible to waive the fees last time we talked about this nobody got back to me,” said McDonough. “So please look at that before we talk about this.”
“It’s not like the building isn’t being inspected,” Martin said.
“I don’t think anybody here would disagree,” Bleess said. “It’s just the legal obligations under local ordinances and MUBEC, which the state requires us to enforce. If our state senator or representative wants us to appeal that, we would welcome the effort. It’s one of those things by state law that we’re required to do and waiving the fee may or may not impact that, but it’s still a discussion point we need to have.”
While there was still some uncertainty about an assessor on the construction site ensuring that MUBEC ordinances are followed, Bleess said “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
