MEXICO – The Vocational Region 9 school board has chosen a general contractor for a major renovation and building project.
Director David Driscoll said Payton Construction of Saco was chosen Wednesday from six applicants. The firm, which has had extensive experience constructing schools, will soon begin an analysis of the River Road school’s needs.
Driscoll said the state has approved lending up to $1 million for a renovation that would include roof replacement, plumbing and electrical work, and installation of an elevator, among other things.
A second project, also for up to $1 million, is planned for building a six-room addition onto the structure.
“It’s really important to the kids in this area. They deserve equal vocational opportunity with other vocational schools,” he said Friday.
Driscoll was the vocational director of St. Croix Regional Technology Center when that school was built several years ago.
Voters in Region 9 will decide whether to approve the loans/grants at a special referendum in March. Driscoll said he plans to hold public meetings on the proposed projects in several areas in early March.
He said if voters approve, the state would provide 40 percent of the cost of the two projects. The region would borrow the remaining 60 percent at no interest for 10 years.
“This money is really a good deal,” he said.
The contracting firm will receive 5 percent of the projects’ costs in payment for its work.
In the meantime, Driscoll said students in the three sending schools will be surveyed to gauge interest in one or two new vocational programs that would be offered once the new addition is built.
If all goes as hoped, the renovation project would begin in June and be completed by the end of the year. The addition would likely be completed in time for the 2006-07 school year.
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