Residents OK site for new school Bucksport public hearing first step in obtaining state approval, funding

BUCKSPORT – A handful of Bucksport residents Thursday gave unanimous initial approval to a 40-acre site proposed as a location for a new middle school in town.

The informal straw poll was taken at a public hearing during which Superintendent of Schools Marc Curtis and architect Jack Gordon, discussed the proposed site, which is part of the Buck Estates property.

The hearing and the straw poll are part of the process to obtain state approval and funding for the construction project. Thursday’s vote was 16-0 in favor of the site.

Curtis said the site is located across the power line from, and northeast of, the Miles Lane School. The school committee has taken an option on the property, which will cost $160,000, he said.

The site is a good one, Curtis said, with good drainage and slopes that are not too steep. One attractive feature, he said, is the proximity to other existing schools. The Miles Lane School and the high school are adjacent to the proposed lot and the Jewett School is a short distance away.

“It creates almost a campus setting,” he said.

Although no detailed plans have been prepared yet, the building committee has proposed including an auditorium in the project for both school and community use. Because the area is nearby to the existing schools, it will provide easy access for those students, Curtis said.

Although the school department will discontinue using the Gardiner Middle School building if the project is approved, it plans to continue to utilize the Jewett School.

The middle school is being planned to house grades 5-8 and the school committee will discuss the possibility of redistributing other grades. That, Curtis said, will depend on a number of factors, including future student populations.

Gordon told residents that because the proposed site is centrally located it avoids sprawl, one of the state guidelines for new school construction.

The site sits in the only land use district in the town in which new school construction can take place, he said.

The only potential “red flag” on the site, Gordon said, is the existence of wetlands on the property. The initial plans call for the access road – which will be an extension of Miles Lane – to travel through the largest of the wetland areas.

“There is a limit to what we can do in there,” he said. “We went that way because it’s the shortest distance, but we can pull the road down on the property and go through less of the wetlands.”

Gordon said he and the building committee will meet with representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection to discuss requirements for the site. The project also will require a traffic study for DEP and approval from the Department of Transportation as well.

If the project is approved, the state will provide the bulk of the funding, the cost of which has been estimated at around $7.5 million.

Because the town is already paying the state-established maximum for debt service, which is tied to the town’s state valuation, the project, if approved, could be completed with no increase in that payment, aside from the annual increases in the state valuation, Curtis said.

“The approval of the project is based solely on need,” he said, “But it will be an advantage to the town if we do it now while we have debt on the other schools.”

The building committee will take the site plan to a Department of Education subcommittee later this month and to the full Board of Education in January.

In March or April, it will go before the board for concept approval of preliminary plans for the new building. If the state board grants concept approval, the committee will develop detailed plans to present to local voters, probably in May.

If voters approve, the plans will go back to the state board for financial approval, the final step in the approval process.