Contractors have brought in some heavy equipment and set up fencing around the work site for the new $45 million pre-kindergarten to eighth grade school in Caribou.
“They are mobilized,” RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak said Thursday.
Workers will start breaking ground anytime from the week of July 22 to the beginning of August, according to Doak. Work on the foundation is expected to start Aug. 6 for the new school building on Bennett Drive, adjacent to Teague Park Elementary.
Though the site work likely will start sooner, “we’re having a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 3,” said Doak.
Bowman Constructors of Newport has brought in heavy equipment and set up fencing around the work site on Bennett Drive for the new $45 million pre-kindergarten to eighth grade school in Caribou. (Courtesy of John O’Meara)
Earlier this month, the Maine Board of Education approved an additional $4.8 million for the project that was jeopardized in May when the only bid on construction came in several million dollars higher than anticipated.
Residents of the RSU 39 members communities — Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm — must still approve accepting those additional funds.
Doak said there will be a public meeting to explain the funding for the project on Aug 16 at the Caribou Recreation Center and then a district-wide referendum for residents to vote on it on Sept. 6.
Doak is optimistic about the vote.
“I think it will be fine,” he said, emphasizing that the project should work out so that it doesn’t create any additional taxpayer burden, since the state is coming up with the funding.
Although site work and cement work will start this summer, steel isn’t scheduled to start going up until next spring.
