As part of RSU 39’s $50 million school project, the city of Caribou is set to receive a brand new park, since the new prekindergarten to eighth grade school will be built at Teague Park’s current location.
A board of directors formed to raise money for a Caribou Children’s Discovery Museum recently decided after that effort failed to donate $75,383.33 toward a splash park that will be built in conjunction with that new park.
Parks and Recreation Superintendent Gary Marquis told city councilors on Monday, Aug. 14, that in order to receive the gift, Caribou officials need to use part of the funds to build a donor wall and also to construct a butterfly bench in memory of Marissa Lloyd.
A new Teague Park will be created across the street from its current Bennett Drive location, next to the city’s recreation center and adjacent to a Maine Army National Guard building. During the new school project’s early planning phase, there were issues regarding whether or not there would be enough land along the National Guard station’s fence for the new park.
The fence line was originally placed over city and school land, so Marquis recently met with National Guard representatives about moving two lengths of chain-link fencing, allowing for adequate space to build the park.
Without the extra land, Marquis said the city would likely not have adequate land to build the park, and would also not be able to “build a regulation size ball field.”
“We felt, as the Rec Center moves forward with the park on this side of the road, we wouldn’t have enough room,” Marquis said on Tuesday.
Councilors Monday night approved moving ahead with the project, allowing Marquis to speak with contractors about the necessary work, provided the money spent does not exceed $15,000.
Though the National Guard agreed to let the city work with contractors to move the fence lines, the Guard will not be contributing to the project. Marquis said the new fence line will increase the size of the new park by several hundred feet without intersecting with National Guard property.
Marquis told councilors that his plan is to start moving fences by the end of the year.
“We’ll still have a military installation behind us, but with cleaner lines I think we’ll be able to live with it,” Marquis said.
Marquis added that, to save on costs, parks and recreation staffers could do much of the work themselves, along with the help of Caribou Public Works and possibly students from Caribou’s Regional Tech Center as well as Loring Job Corps.
Parks and recreation officials plan on holding a formal check signing event to accept the $75,383.33 donation at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 17 at the recreation center.
