Brewer residents get behind plans for new school

BREWER – All of the residents at Monday’s public meeting on the proposed Brewer Community School, by a show of hands, voted to support the project’s concept designs.

Applause broke out when no one in the room of 168 residents voted in the straw or nonbinding vote to oppose the nearly $39 million school construction project, which includes an elementary-middle school and school auditorium on Parkway South.

The pre-kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school is designed to replace five aging schools in the city that were all built more than 50 years ago.

The two-story, 156,350-square-foot building would have shared areas in the middle for such things as the cafeteria and media center or library, and it would include wings to separate the students by appropriate age groups.

“It creates small schools within the larger school,” architect Richard Graves, of WBRC Architects-Engineers of Bangor, told residents and others at the meeting.

The plans include a student drop-off area and parking for parents, a bus drop-off area, and parking for teachers and staff, featuring a total of 175 parking spaces.

The new school will house about 1,100 students and open in 2010, if all goes as scheduled.

After hearing a short presentation from Graves and Superintendent Daniel Lee, residents were given time to ask questions.

Those included: What will become of the existing school properties? How will pupils get to the playground area? How would playground equipment be paid for? How would consolidation affect the construction project? Where are the elevators? Why does the building have a flat roof?

Residents were told the old school properties, by charter, would be offered to the city once they were no longer being used by the School Department; pupils would need to go through the school to get to the playgrounds, which would be fenced; the state does provide for some playground equipment costs; communities that partner with Brewer as part of the consolidation law would not have to pay for the school; the elevators are located near the front entrance; and the state only pays for flat roofs.

The State Board of Education will review the plans at its Oct. 10 meeting. If approved, a local referendum is planned for Dec. 4.

The concept designs are still works in progress and will be fine-tuned before construction begins next summer, if approved, Graves said.

Monday night’s meeting is not the last time residents can ask questions. Any residents with inquiries about the project can call the superintendent’s office at 989-3160.

“Our buildings have exceeded their life expectancy,” Lee said. “Fifty years has passed. It’s now time to think about the next 50 years.”