BANGOR — The Queen Anne’s Lace and tall grasses along Griffin Road flutter in the breeze, just as they did last summer, and the summer before that.

But the future of the big field bounded by Griffin and Kenduskeag Avenue could involve lots of youngsters if the City Council agrees to purchase the 42-acre site and bank it against the day Bangor needs a new school built.

The council process is expected to begin this evening with a first reading and referral of the purchase to the finance committee. The council meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.

The council does not usually discuss referral items, but will discuss the purchase at two upcoming meetings, at least: the finance meeting at 5 p.m. Aug. 3, and at a later council meeting, probably on Aug. 10. Both meetings will be open to the public.

The Bangor School Committee last Monday gave its unanimous approval to the $400,000 purchase, which would be funded by Medicaid reimbursements the department did not expect to receive — about $200,000 for January through June of this year, and nearly $350,000 for the school year beginning in September.

After the purchase, the remaining funds would be used to reinstitute an alternative education program in the middle schools.

From the corner of Griffin and Kenduskeag, the parcel in question runs about 650 feet out Kenduskeag Avenue. It also runs 2,200 feet along Griffin toward Broadway. The plot is across the road from the Bangor Fire Department’s Station No. 6 on Griffin. The land to be acquired does not include a single-family home and a city-owned sliver of land for utilities at the very corner of the intersection.

The asking price for the property, which is owned by Judson and Joshua McIntosh, was $438,000. Zoned for agriculture, it is assessed by the city at less than $140,000. Sales usually drive up property assessments, but the land apparently hadn’t been sold in some time. The McIntoshes received it as a gift 11 years ago from their grandmother, Florence Grant.

The school department will pay $400,000 for the 42 acres, or $9,524 an acre. The most recent purchase of a large plot of land in that same area would be the 22.65 acres on Broadway that Abundant Life Church bought from Judson Grant Jr. for $375,000, or $16,556 an acre.

The church is building a new worship facility on its parcel.

Grant still owns at least 173 acres on three parcels in the immediate area.

City Assessor Ben Birch explained Friday that large parcels of land typically sell for fewer dollars per acre than smaller parcels.

Land would only be more expensive to acquire in later years, city and school officials agree.

Moreover, said City Manager Edward Barrett, it’s much better not to have to acquire land when a community is in a “crisis mode” to get a new school built. The price may go up in that kind of situation, or property owners may not be willing to sell.

“No one likes to go through eminent domain,” Barrett said. “This avoids problems that might be encountered later.”

The planned purchase, he said, “I think, is certainly something that’s been called for in our comprehensive plans” over the last 20 years. In the long term, it could provide a site for a school, and in the short term, room for some much-needed recreational fields.

A recent study identified the need for more fields for activities such as soccer, Barrett said. His hope is that there will be “some kind of joint planning process” involving both the city and the school department. While the department would pay for the land, it would be owned by the city and designated for school use.

Mayor Timothy Woodcock said Friday he believed the general sense of the City Council was “that the school department should be congratulated for taking advantage of the opportunity presented by the Medicaid money to make the land acquisition which had been in plans for a long time.”

Woodcock called the land “very logically situated — close to the high school, near the traditional east side-west side boundary of the Kenduskeag Stream, and with room to grow. This is a good example of planning ahead.”

The plot is centrally located within the city limits, in a position that would make a future school accessible to those who may build homes in some of the city’s undeveloped areas.

Councilor James Tyler called the land proposal “a great idea. We’ve known for decades we ought to be setting aside some land. Everything is coming together.”

Bangor Superintendent James Doughty said recently there was a reason the Medicaid reimbursement wasn’t included in the 1998-1999 budget.

“We thought we were going to get the money for 1997, and then we didn’t,” he pointed out. Doughty is somewhat dubious about how long the reimbursement policy will remain in place after the coming school year, because of questions about the intent of the law passed by Congress.

If the funding should be an ongoing revenue in the coming years, he may recommend that it be cycled into the special education budget, which increases yearly.

School Committee Chairman Martha Newman would support that approach if the funding turns into a dependable source. Special education costs, which increase much more rapidly than the federal funding put into the programs, “are one of the largest unfunded mandates in the history of this country,” she said.