March 28, 2024
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SAD 24 to vote on roof construction proposal

VAN BUREN – SAD 24 residents will vote Jan. 15 on a proposal to that could bring the district more than $1.5 million of state money to reconstruct roofs on two school buildings.

More than two-thirds of the money would be a grant. The remaining 30 percent would be repaid over a 10-year period at no interest.

The $1,525,730 would come from the state’s Revolving Renovation Fund Program. That program involves more than $60 million approved in a statewide referendum in 1998 for renovation of Maine schools.

The local share of the two projects will amount to about $457,719. The state will forgive up to $1,068,011 of the total amount.

The Maine Department of Education, according to SAD 24 financial services consultant Charles Anderson, has approved SAD 24 for the money. All that is needed is for local residents to approve the program.

The SAD 24 school board is recommending that residents approve the proposal and the projects.

Residents of Van Buren, Hamlin, and Cyr Plantation will vote on the proposal on Tuesday, Jan. 15. The referendum voting will take place in each community from 2 to 8 p.m.

A public hearing on the proposal, and the projects involved at Gateway Elementary School and the Van Buren District Secondary School, will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, in the high school auditorium.

“It is hard to see where the downside is to such a project,” Anderson said Friday. “It is a strong program for schools throughout the state to do work on their buildings.

“In SAD 24, it could allow us to do work on roofs that are 30-plus years old,” he said. “Most of the roofs involved are original, and some parts of these schools were built in the 1950s.”

The school district already is working on a roof project at the Gateway Elementary School. That work involves the roofs over the kitchen and gymnasium areas of the building. The new project will refurbish the roofs over the classroom areas of the building, constructed in the 1970s.

At the high school, the money will allow for about two-thirds of the roofs to be reconstructed. Different parts of the building were constructed over a three-decade period from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Anderson said the high school roofs could not all be completed with this project money. Each building is limited to $1 million in construction from the state fund.

The consultant said the remainder of the high school roofs will need to be done at a later time. He is hopeful that more state money will become available.

Anderson said the work will be done over a three-year period. Repayment of the loan to the state starts only after the work is fully completed.


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