LINCOLN – A northern Penobscot County vocational school won’t have to cut student programs or ask taxpayers in the 29 towns its serves for more money to comply with health and safety codes, thanks to a federal grant.

Penobscot Tech Region 3, a Lincoln-based regional vocational school serving five area school systems, has been awarded a grant of $162,762. The Lincoln school was the only vocational region to receive a renovation grant. Only 16 renovation grants were awarded out of more than 110 applications.

Alan Dickey, Region 3’s director, said the grant is the largest one the school has ever received. Dickey and Mary Hawkes, the business manager who was instrumental in preparing the grant, said they are thrilled.

“We have barriers within the school that don’t permit use to serve our students and our staff as well as we could under the Americans with Disabilities Act and we have some safety issues around asbestos floor tiles,” said Dickey. He said this would make the school user-friendly. “We want a safe, healthy place for kids to go to school.”

No complaints have been filed against the school, but officials said they have had handicapped students and staff and people recuperating from injuries.

Dickey said a state evaluation of whether the school was meeting civil rights and ADA requirements a few years ago indicated it needed to take steps to remove some barriers to students and staff. An engineering study was prepared and priorities were set. Officials developed a five-year plan to make the improvements by budgeting $48,000 a year for the next five years.

Dickey said the five-year plan was developed because the school could not afford to make immediately all of the needed improvements estimated to cost between $150,000 and $200,000.

Officials said thanks to the grant, next year’s budget deliberations won’t be as tough.

“We planned to spend $48,000 next year and for four more years, which would have impacted our budget significantly,” said Dickey. “That would be about the equivalent of one of our programs. We were weighing ‘do we go to the taxpayers and increase our budget or do we modify or eliminate something we have going at the school?'”

“It will really increase our resources and what we can offer here,” said Hawkes.

Dickey expects some of the renovations will begin in early 2003 and during school vacation breaks with the projects to be completed during the summer months.

The director said the renovation project includes making restrooms handicapped-accessible, which is no easy task because the piping runs under a concrete floor; retrofitting a chairlift for a short stairway, installing a larger elevator in the existing shaft, and replacing asbestos floor tiles on the second floor of the school.

Dickey commended Hawkes for her efforts in preparing the grant in a short time. He said the vocational school’s application was ranked the fifth-highest score.

Region 3 serves about 250 high school students from five area school systems and offers programs in Howland, Lee, Lincoln, East Millinocket and in Millinocket.