Voters to consider SAD 67 building buy

LINCOLN – Next month, voters in the three towns served by SAD 67 will consider authorizing school officials to borrow up to $150,000 to purchase a vacant Main Street bank building.

For decades, the second floor of the Masonic building has housed the school district’s central offices. The superintendent, his staff, including the bookkeeper, administrative assistant and clerk, the special education director, the curriculum coordinator and facilities manager work on the second story of the Main Street building.

The district rents 2,346 square feet of space from the Masons at a cost of $10,752 a year.

Superintendent Fred Woodman said about 80 percent, or $8,601, of the annual rent is reimbursed to the district from the state, leaving an annual local cost of $2,151.

But the school district faces two problems.

Woodman said the school district will no longer receive reimbursement from the state for its rent costs beginning July 1, 2003, which means district taxpayers will pay all of the cost.

SAD 67’s second-story level offices are not now handicapped-accessible.

“In order for us to stay here, they have got to become ADA-compliant,” said Woodman. No one has requested access to the second-story offices, but if someone did, the district would have to provide it, he said.

Woodman said the Masons have looked into installing an outside elevator on the building, which is estimated to cost $120,000. He said the Masons would borrow the money and pass the cost onto its tenants – the school district and the town. Lincoln’s town offices, located on the street level of the building, are handicapped-accessible so the school district would pay all of the costs, he said.

Woodman said the Masons would require a 10-year lease. “I can’t blame them for wanting to make sure we will be here if they make that expenditure,” he said.

He said the district’s rent could go to as much as $30,000 a year, or $300,000 in a 10-year period. “It will start costing the taxpayers a bundle,” he said.

Woodman said the district could purchase the bank building for $150,000 through a six-year lease-purchase agreement with Bangor Savings Bank. Woodman said the district is eligible for a state lease-purchase program where it would receive $18,768 a year from the state, or a total of $112,608 during a six-year period. He said the $37,392 difference translated into an annual cost of $6,232 a year plus interest. “It would be paid off in six years,” he said. “We would own our own building and it would be a much better deal for the taxpayer.”

Woodman said the 5,000 square feet of space in the bank building would more than suit the needs of the district. He said there were options with some of the bank space not needed by the district, such as leasing it to noncompetitive business tenants or other governmental agencies, and perhaps renting some of the vault space to store records.