MECHANIC FALLS – A School Union 29 meeting, consisting of full school committees from Mechanic Falls, Poland and Minot, will be held at 7 p.m. today at Elm Street School.

Poland’s public works project consultant Mark Gray will present the latest numbers and a more detailed breakdown of space and cost for the School Union 29 office building. As of Tuesday, Gray was still preparing the data. Actual construction costs won’t be known until construction is completed.

The School Union 29 office building became part of a multifaceted Poland public works project already under way.

The town planned to build a $100,000 bus dispatch center on the corner of Aggregate Road and Route 26 near the existing Fire Station, as part of an overall site project where it would house its heavy equipment and winter road supplies. A vehicle garage, new fueling station, and salt and sand storage shed, and bus dispatch building constituted the total project.

Voters from the union towns of Minot, Mechanic Falls and Poland had approved in 2003 a combined total expenditure of $250,000 prorated among the three towns, to buy real estate for the administrative office. However, school officials were unable to find a suitable building for the superintendent’s office.

School and town officials then agreed to expand the already planned Poland bus dispatch center to include school union office space and share in building infrastructure costs. New building and site designs were drawn, an agreement among the three towns was drafted, and voters approved the new deal at their 2004 town meetings. The agreement among the three towns spelled out percentages in building ownership, construction costs and ongoing maintenance obligations.

That $250,000 then was added to Poland’s $100,000 for a combined building budgeted at $350,000, and the project could go forward for bid.

The full scope of Poland’s public works project went out as four separate bids. Low bids for each came from R & R Construction Inc. of Lewiston, which allowed for one general contractor. The four contracts combined came in at $2.1 million, which was under Poland’s $2.3 million budget for the entire Aggregate Road public works project.

However, the individual contract for the bus dispatch and superintendent’s office building came in over budget. By that time, school committees and voters from each town already were into their new fiscal year and thinking that they already had an agreement. That’s when Ike Levine, Poland School Committee chairman, urged Poland selectmen to go ahead and approve the contract so as not to jeopardize the $88,000 in state matching funds, which already had one deadline extension and the town was not likely to get another.

Poland’s selectmen approved the contracts. Selectmen said Tuesday that they were in no hurry for the other towns to make any decisions. They planned to settle cost overruns, if any after the full project was completed.

The difference of $37,409 included project contingencies by the contractor. Actual numbers won’t be final until the project is finished. Levine asked that the Town of Poland, the school committees from Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls make up the difference over the original amount. Levine asked if Mechanic Falls and Minot would each pony up an additional $10,000.

In lieu of additional payment, Levine asked if the other two towns would give up some of their ownership in the building. Minot’s school committee responded that it would reconsider the ownership ratio. Mechanic Falls committee voted that they wanted to stick by the original agreement.

The rift between Mechanic Falls and Poland came when Levine tied the building decision with an unrelated and preliminary Poland Regional High School laptop program proposal together and accused Mechanic Falls of failing the first test for unionwide financial cooperation.

Breakout:

If prorated according to the ownership agreement, additional funding for the administrative office and bus dispatch building would amount to (in rounded-off figures):

• $7,818 from the town of Poland for its bus dispatch share.

• $16,834 from Poland’s school budget.

• $8,529 from Mechanic Falls’ school budget.

• $6,684 from Minot’s school budget.