3 new Maine border stations to cost $20M

BAILEYVILLE – The federal government says U.S. Border Patrol agents here and in Jackman and Van Buren will have new digs by 2006.

The new stations will be built on a minimum of 10-acre lots and will include a 10,800-square-foot building. The estimated cost for the three sites is $20 million, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in its Update Report for Maine.

The Baileyville site will cost around $6 million and will accommodate 25 border patrol agents.

Plans call for construction of an 11,400-square-foot area to include a vehicle port and storage as well as maintenance and an anti-smuggling unit area in the town’s industrial park on Routes 9 and 1.

The site includes a security fence.

The Jackman station will be built on Route 6/15, about 2.5 miles east of U.S. Route 201.

The facility in Van Buren will be built on U.S. Route 1A at the former Van Buren Drive-In Theater.

Previously, the Army Corps of Engineers said the 800-square-foot Border Patrol station on the second floor of the Calais port of entry building at Ferry Point Bridge did not have enough space to accommodate future staffing and equipment needs. Federal officials looked at several sites before settling on the Baileyville Industrial Park.

Town Manager Scott Harriman said he met recently with the construction manager for the Corps of Engineers. “When the ground firms up out there you are going to see some work,” he said. “As a matter of fact, the ground contractor has already phoned me about stockpiling material, so it’s a done deal.”

The corps has completed site selections, environmental assessments, real estate acquisitions and design for all three stations.

Harriman said town officials have been meeting with other prospective tenants. “That’s what I talked with the [construction manager] about was them being the cornerstone of the park and our desire that there be a nice building out there with nice landscaping because it’s going to be a showpiece for the park,” he said. “So we are really excited to get a roof up out there.”

Work is expected to begin this month in Baileyville and Jackman with completion sometime in September 2006.

“An award in the amount of $12,696,0000 was made to JCN Construction Co. of Manchester, N.H., on Feb. 25, to construct the base building only at each location,” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in its report. “A construction contract solicitation for the Van Buren Border Patrol Station is ready to be issued in early 2006 pending receipt of additional funds” from the Department of Homeland Security.