DIXFIELD – Questions were asked about pitched versus flat roofs and about potential uses for athletic fields at Tuesday night’s SAD 21 public hearing on next week’s districtwide referendum.
If approved, the three-article warrant would authorize building a districtwide pre-kindergarten to grade 5 elementary school on 35 acres off Route 108 in Peru. Voters also are being asked to approve borrowing $150,000 to create a multipurpose athletic field.
The pre-kindergarten class would be a half-day and optional only, said Superintendent Thomas Ward.
He explained the warrant, which will be voted on by secret ballot on Tuesday in Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru.
A small crowd of residents and municipal and school officials attended the 60-minute meeting Tuesday night in Dirigo High School’s Student Community Center.
In response to one man’s question about why the new school wouldn’t have pitched roofs, Ward and Portland Design Team architect Lyndon Keck cited costs and other problems.
Keck said the roof is to be a low-slope roof with a quarter-inch pitch toward drains.
Because steep-pitched roofs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the state, which would foot more than $13 million for the 400-pupil school, would not pay the price, Keck said.
Other problems would include valleys on the roof and snow and ice sliding off it.
“We’re not arguing, Yeah, it would be nice to have a pitched roof.’ Kingfield has a pitched roof with metal roofing and signs all around the building that say, Watch out for the ice.’ Do you want to take that risk with elementary kids?” Ward asked.
And, in response to questions about a low-sloped roof’s susceptibility to collapse under heavy snow, Keck said, “I’ve been doing low-pitched roofs for 30 years and never had one collapse.”
Talk then shifted to athletic fields, something that SAD 21 lacks in a big way. The district pays Dixfield to use the town’s Harlow Park fields for outdoor high school athletic games.
Article 3 asks voters to OK spending up to $150,000 for a high-school size athletic field. Coupled with $81,778 in interest estimated at 5.23 percent, payments would total $231,778, or $11,588 annually for 20 years.
The total 20-year cost per town, Ward said, would be: Canton, $37,779.81; Carthage, $15,992.68; Dixfield, $96,419.65; and Peru, $81,585.86.
Uses for the field would be soccer or field hockey, and, possibly, football, but not baseball, he said.
A track was ruled out as well, due to the property’s topography, which would require extensive and expensive groundwork to flatten the surface, Ward said.
The district is purchasing 35 acres to have the capacity to add up to five athletic fields, when money becomes available, he added.
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