By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

OXFORD – Construction of Norway Savings Bank’s new Education Center in the Oxford Hills Business Park on Route 26 has been temporarily delayed due to concerns over storm water drainage and cost overruns, Bob Harmon, president of Norway Savings, said Tuesday.

Harmon said bank officials are in discussions with Oxford town officials, the Oxford Hills Growth Council, and the state Department of Environmental Protection about the possibility of improving drainage at the site by dropping the water table. Additionally, Harmon said the project faces between $500,000 and $600,000 in cost overruns to place 4 feet of fill underneath the new structure. The parties involved in the discussions are looking at ways to defray that cost, including establishing a tax increment financing plan for the project.

“We’re looking at all potential solutions,” said Harmon. “It is a good site in all other respects.

“If those options don’t work out, we will look at other sites in the Oxford Hills. Our commitment is to stay in the Oxford Hills.”

Harmon said last November that he hoped construction could start in December or January. The 27,000-square-foot Education Center is designed to accommodate the bank’s growth during the next 15 to 20 years.

The new building would house a fairly large training room for employees as well as bank operations such as deposit and loan processing, among others. The bank’s main location on Main Street in Norway will remain its home office and operate as a branch. Initially, about 50 employees will relocate to the new building.

However a record amount of rainfall last year has highlighted the need for improved storm water drainage, Harmon said. “The area has pretty quick drainage, but it is flat,” he said. “We’re looking at dropping the water table if we can.”

The business park property is beside a wetland up against Route 26, but if the wetland is drained to accommodate the project, the town could create a new wetland in another area. “If you dry up one area, you can mitigate that by creating a new wetland,” Harmon said.

The project has also run into unforeseen cost overruns related to a plan to place 4 feet of fill underneath the new structure. Other new structures that are nearby, including the New Balance factory outlet and the Oxford Public Safety Building, were constructed with the same amount of fill underneath them.

However the bid for that work was significantly higher than anticipated, Harmon said. “That cost has exceeded our original estimates,” he said.

Harmon said he could not estimate when construction might begin. The project has received necessary building approvals from the town.

Norway Savings paid around $10,000 an acre to Western Maine Development, the real estate arm of the Growth Council, for the two front lots at the business park. The deal was announced in May 2004.

Western Maine Development was able to improve infrastructure at the park with a $232,500 grant from the Municipal Investment Trust Fund. The park land was donated to the town by local developer Bob Bahre.

Brett Doney, president of EnterpriseMaine, the umbrella organization of the Growth Council, said Tuesday that he is “working very closely” with town officials on the possibility of tax increment financing for the project.

The park already has been designated for special tax incentives under Gov. John Baldacci’s Pine Tree Zone program.