Lincoln practice field construction delayed

LINCOLN – Tom and Scott Gardner came to SAD 67 school officials in December with what they thought was a generous and useful donation: the creation of an extra practice field at Mattanawcook Academy.

Tom Gardner coaches the football team as a volunteer and, with his brother, is one of the principals of W.T. Gardner and Sons Inc. of Lincoln, which owns a construction company that could do the work.

A new practice field, Gardner knew, would help the school’s teaching and athletic programs. The school’s old, small practice field forced football players to use Curry Field for most practices. A new field would have room for a full set of goalposts and could lead to more improvements, such as a new track.

The SAD 67 board of directors approved the idea by February, and work on the new five-acre field was begun in March. But on Thursday, Gardner said the field won’t be available for use until fall 2006.

The reason: a bureaucratic delay.

Gardner said that he didn’t get permission from school officials to finish the job until last week, so his company’s workers have only begun to remove tree stumps and to do other heavy work this week.

“The field should have been growing grass all summer,” Gardner said Thursday. “Now, it’s not going to be usable for another year. The work that still has to be done is going to take another three or four weeks, and you’re not going to get any grass growing there in the fall.”

SAD 67 board Chairman Don Worcester said he was surprised last week to hear of the delay and immediately approved the work when he heard.

Worcester said it was his understanding that the delay was partially caused by a state Department of Environmental Protection permit being needed for the work to be finished.

He also said that summer is the busiest time of year for school buildings and grounds workers, with the majority of maintenance and upkeep work done with school in recess, and that might have accounted for some of the delay.

Worcester plans to discuss the project with Michael Lambert, who oversees buildings and grounds, he said.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Mike about this because he has just had so much on his plate,” Worcester said. “I don’t know all of the ins and outs of what happened yet, so I really can’t say anything about it.”

Messages left with Lambert at work and home were not immediately returned Thursday.

SAD 67 has had some turnover this summer, with Superintendent Lawrence Coughlin retiring and being replaced by interim Superintendent Omar Norton. Voters have also twice rejected SAD 67’s budget, most recently on Tuesday.

The SAD administrative offices are preparing to move in early September from the second floor of the town offices on Main Street to a next-door building.

Gardner said he called school officials twice a month since March to get permission to do the work before Worcester stepped in and gave permission last Thursday.

Gardner blamed politics and bureaucracy for the five-month delay.

“They had to do a [minor] DEP permit,” Gardner said, sounding frustrated, “but does that take four or five months?

“I don’t want to point fingers,” he added, “but when you get into the political arena, time and money have no correlation.”