LEWISTON — The June 14 referendum on the proposed new Lewiston elementary school is still on, but if approved, construction could be delayed because of government red tape, Superintendent Bill Webster said Wednesday.

During a special School Committee meeting, Webster said it had come to light that in 1978, the city received a $150,000 federal National Parks Service grant to build the football field — at the site of the proposed new school.

“One of the stipulations in these grants is the area to which the money is being used must forever remain as recreational space, unless there’s a conversion process” to substitute property for recreation of equal or greater value, Webster said.

“This is new information,” he said at a joint meeting of the Lewiston School Committee and the New School Building Committee.

The football field is the site for the new school recommended by the Maine Department of Education, which was not aware of the federal grant stipulation.

A lawyer who is familiar with the issue, E. William Stockmeyer, is recommending that Lewiston proceed with the referendum, then find land that would be accepted by the federal government to replace the football field.

It may or may not mean the school opens as planned in 2019, depending on how long it takes to find suitable land and have that land approved by the federal government, Webster said.

He said that under the 1978 grant, the city was to file annual reports about how the land was used to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, which is part of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Those reports were never filed, and the Bureau of Parks and Lands never followed up, Webster said.

The issue came to light only after the Maine Board of Education approved the concept plan for the new school in March. After that, the bureau said the land has federal restrictions that it or equivalent land remain recreational.

The city is buying Drouin Field from the Catholic Diocese of Portland. That land could be counted as part of the conversion, but more land will have to be found, Webster said.

Sites turned into recreational land in recent years — such as trails built at McMahon Elementary School — cannot count. Only undeveloped land can be considered, Webster said.

He estimated that another 7 to 9 acres must be found. Approval of the land by the federal government will have to occur before construction begins on the new school.

Putting off the June 14 referendum to get the issue straightened out is not an option, School Committee member Tom Shannon said. State regulation states that once the state gives a new school project concept approval — which happened in March — an affirmative referendum vote from the community has to happen within six months, no later than mid-October.

If a referendum is put off longer, Lewiston would lose the state funding that would pay for 100 percent of the new school, which is needed to relieve crowded classrooms.

Lewiston High School Athletic Director Jason Fuller expressed frustration. 

The project is complicated by a lack of government oversight, since the city has converted acres into recreational use that cannot now be considered under the rules, Fuller said.

“This is bad practice,” he said.

“We can yell a lot at who’s at fault,” Shannon said. “There’s plenty of that to go around. There’s no choice but to proceed with the June 14 referendum. We want a big voter turnout. If we wait until November, we’d lose our money. Our only window is June 14.”

Building Committee member Jim Handy recommended contacting Maine’s congressional delegation for help in ensuring the timing of federal approval doesn’t delay the new school opening.

If the new school is approved by voters on June 14, Webster said, he’ll work with City Administrator Ed Barrett to identify potential land.

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