Superintendent outlines costs associated with new school
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

OXFORD – SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman reminded the school board on Monday about the costs of building a new school in Paris.

The elementary school is slated to cost between $10 million and $11 million.

The architect’s fee is about 2 to 3 percent of the final costs, as fixed by state regulation.

“Permits alone are going to cost us over $100,000,” Eastman told the board.

There’s also the cost of testing.

“We’ve already done site analysis, soils testing and ground water testing,” said John Parsons, special projects coordinator for SAD 17. “We’ve also had to do two environmental studies, a ground water study and archaeological study.”

He said those tests and studies cost upward of $30,000.

The district must also pay a Maine Bureau of General Services mandatory fee.

“We have no choice,” Parsons said. “We will have to pay four-tenths of 1 percent of the project’s costs, which will be about $10 million to $11 million, so figure on $40,000 to $45,000.”

Parsons said that by Maine law the Bureau of General Services has some oversight responsibility on school construction projects.

“They will visit the job site during construction to see what’s going on and make sure the building is going up as designed,” Parsons said. “In the recently completed Hebron school project, the bureau had someone who came by at least once per month. A representative also sits in our meetings with the Department of Education.”

He said a site application must be filed with the Department of Environmental Protection, and the district was projecting a cost of at least $50,000.

“And that’s if we can keep building and parking lots within three acres,” Parsons said.

One of the least expensive permits the district will have to get is a building permit from the town of Paris.

Albert Holden, Paris code enforcement officer, said the town currently charges 10 cents per square foot for a building permit.

Parsons said at that rate the permit would cost $6,127.90.

“In comparison, that’s not a big cost,” Parsons said. “The good thing for us is that these costs are in the total project cost, and not borne solely by local taxpayers.”

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