POLAND – With the start of school right around the corner and the construction season growing shorter, Poland has yet to officially award contracts for a combined school bus dispatch center and School Union 29 administrative office.

The town received a low bid from R & R Construction Inc. of Lewiston for the school project, but it exceeded the $250,000 allowance granted by Minot, Mechanic Falls and Poland voters. The bid came in about $20,000 higher.

Town Manager Richard Chick said he was still working with project consultants and the construction company to work out a deal. The Board of Selectmen met in executive session this week, and details are pending.

Along with the new school building, the town has two public works building projects at the same site at the corner of Aggregate Road and Route 26. Low bids for those projects also came from R & R Construction.

“The good news is that the same contractor had all three low bids,” Chick said. “That means one general contractor on site, which will help with the coordination of the projects.”

However, Selectman Steve Robinson raised concerns about Poland’s having to swallow the additional costs of a building that would be jointly owned by the three school union towns.

Poland School Committee Chairman Ike Levine sent out letters to fellow committee chairs in Minot and Mechanic Falls, asking the towns either to renegotiate the percentages of building ownership or to pony up the extra money.

The three towns entered into an agreement in June that called for Poland owning 66 percent ownership of the new building. In addition to the shared administrative office, Poland would own the portion that will serve as the town’s bus dispatching center. Mechanic Falls would own about 18 percent of the building, and Minot would own 16 percent.

Poland would issue the $250,000 bond on behalf of the three towns, with the other two towns contributing to paying off the debt each year. The school union received special permission to participate in a state matching fund program, even though it had missed the deadline. The state will kick in $88,000, which would be the first four years of debt payment, Levine said.

Voters in all three towns gave their school committees authority this year to spend a total of $250,000 to provide a new administrative office. A change in the amount or interlocal agreement raises questions of whether another town meeting is needed. Any delay after this year would negate state matching funds, Levine said.

The school union currently leases the former Railway Station restaurant on Maple Street in Mechanic Falls for $2,000 a month. The lease option runs through March 2005.

School officials originally planned to buy its former site on Elm Street in Mechanic Falls through a lease-purchase agreement. The discovery of mold quashed that plan and forced staff to move to a different building. Attempts to buy other buildings proved unsuccessful.