FARMINGTON – After years of getting a trickle of funds, mostly through bake and yard sales, the Fairbanks School Neighborhood Association was awarded a $50,000 grant and was given a $250,000 loan Tuesday.
The money will be used to complete renovations on the Fairbanks School, located north of town on Fairbanks Road, as a community center.
The Community Facilities Grant, awarded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Housing Service, is a 40-year loan but is contingent on the association’s raising an additional $105,000, Cynthia Kemble, association president, said Thursday.
A total of $405,000 is needed to complete the exterior, basement ceilings and floor, the interior of the first floor, parking, landscaping and handicapped accessibility, she said.
Built in 1896, the school served kindergarten through fifth grade for 70 years, according to Kemble. When it closed as a school, it was used for storage for SAD 9 and was later turned over to the town of Farmington. The town leased it to Manufacturing Technical Enterprises, the tenant at the time of a 1998 fire that left little of the original building.
The association, founded in 2000, envisioned renovating the school to become a multipurpose community center.
Still undergoing renovations, the building currently houses Care and Share Food Closet, a local food pantry, in the basement, as well as Western Maine Community Action Council Food Distribution Center, a distribution center that disburses goods to pantries throughout the county.
Future plans include offices for Franklin County Cooperative Extension, and a meeting and function room that will be used for classes and which will also be available to the community.
The association also plans to partner with Western Maine Community Action, Healthy Community Coalition, Franklin County Cooperative Extension and Franklin County Adult Basic Education to offer education and training in food preparation, business start-up and nutrition.
It also wants to work with the Opportunity Center of North Franklin County in Avon, said Kemble.
“We don’t want to be redundant but rather support each other,” she said.
Other prospects for the space include the Franklin public market, a year-round emporium selling local goods, and an incubator kitchen – a commercially licensed kitchen to be used by local entrepreneurs to start or expand food-related businesses. The kitchen will also provide training and food product development opportunities.
“It’s a great marriage for the entities that are in the building and future tenants of the building because it focuses on producing local goods, produce and agriculture, bringing back what we once were – an agricultural community,” Kemble said.
She said the association has been incredibly fortunate over the years in receiving more than $75,000 in donated labor and materials, including excavating and foundation work, concrete and other building supplies from many local contractors.
“The generosity of individuals, businesses, corporations, organizations and foundations will be needed to realize this goal of ours,” Kemble said of the association’s $105,000 fund-raising goal.
Named gift opportunities or tributes for donors who wish to underwrite a major component of the campaign will be available, she added. For more information, people may call Kemble at 778-3808.
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