CARIBOU, Maine — Contractors who broke ground on a new RSU 39 PreK-8 school in Caribou in early August have steadily made progress and are ahead of schedule.
RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak said Thursday that the work, which is led by Bowman Constructors of Newport with subcontractor N.S. Giles currently doing the groundwork, will wrap up in late December and shut down for the winter as part of a cost savings measure.
“Granted,” Doak said, “if we have a strange, mild winter, our crews may keep working.”
Crews recently shifted from working five days a week to six, and are still “two to three weeks ahead of schedule,” according to Doak. Currently, most of the footers have been laid out to make way for the foundation. The superintendent said they are hoping to see the foundation complete or nearly complete by the winter, so contractors can quickly start on the framework next spring.
“They’ll get back to the building on the first of April,” he said. “At that point you should start to see some steel.”
The new school project involves much more than simply building a new PreK-8 facility. Teague Park needs to be relocated across Bennett Drive, and several buildings will need to be demolished. As of Nov. 8, the next phase is to move adult and alternative education students to a new facility connected to Caribou High School, and to demolish the learning center before the end of the year.
“We were supposed to move [adult and alternative ed] this week,” he said, “but decided to wait until Thanksgiving week.”
Local contractor Soderberg Construction will then remove asbestos from the building and demolish the structure.
“They don’t predict that demolition will be a very long process,” Doak said, “and we’ll hopefully see some movement in December.”
Doak said the district, which serves the communities of Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm, was still waiting on the fire marshal’s office to complete work on the new alternative and adult education center, which was the primary cause for the delay.
While the project required a series of state department of education approvals, as well as passage of local referendums during the first three years, RSU 39 is now moving full speed ahead, and Doak said he is “very excited” to see the new facility come to fruition.
“It’s going very smoothly,” he said. “We’ve had a good safety rating on the site, with no accidents yet, and there have been very few noise complaints. I’m glad we have a site where everyone can see what’s happening, and it’s not all wrapped up.”
Doak said that school officials also would be attending a furniture showing in Lewiston Thursday where Doak and Assistant Superintendent Jane McCall would view a number of possible furnishings for the new building. Doak hopes to hold a furniture fair at the high school at some point next spring, to give the community a glimpse of what will be inside the new school.
“There is talk of classes with three different types of seating options,” he said. “Generic desks in rows are not where schools of the future are going.”
“It’s an exciting time,” he said. “It’s different than what we’re normally used to.”
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- Contractors are about two weeks ahead of schedule in preparing the foundation for a new PreK-8 school on Bennett Drive in Caribou. (Chris Bouchard)
