Curtiss Hallock, right, metal trades instructor at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico, leads a tour Feb. 11 of the new welding building for Regional School Unit 56 directors. The tour also included the new culinary arts building. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

MEXICO — Use of the new welding building at the Region 9 School of Applied Technology will be delayed because the state has now deemed the fire hydrant for it does not provide enough water, according to school officials.

Board Director Bruce Ross of Dixfield said the board was recently informed the 350-gallons-per-minute supply is not enough. The Office of the State Fire Marshal has decided it needs to be 450 gallons per minute, he said.

“What that means to us as Region 9 is that we can take ownership of the building, but we cannot occupy it,” he said of the new lab at 377 River Road.

“This is something that is very frustrating to this board of directors for Region 9,” Ross said. “We had done everything correct. These are all put together between the engineers, the companies that are building it.”

“Well, we can all stand here and point fingers,” Region 9 Superintendent Brenda Gammon said, “but that’s not going to find the solution. And when our engineers and our contractors have gone, we also have to live here, whether it’s the Water District, the Fire Department, Region 9 — we’re all in Mexico — so we need to find a way to solve this.”

“It’s devastating to us here at Region 9,” she said. “We can move tables and chairs and welders in, but I can’t put students in a building that’s not deemed safe for staff for that matter.”

School directors approved a $2.3 million bid March 6, 2024, from Benchmark Construction of Westbrook for the welding building.

“We were building a welding building from day one,” Gammon said. “The fire marshal in Augusta signed off on that. Our local fire chief, as well as permit person, signed off on that. We followed everything we were supposed to follow. “But we are being told we need 450 gallons per minute and we don’t have it, and the Water District cannot provide it provide it for us,” she said.

“If $3 million was dropped on the Water District, they might be able to run a 10-inch pipe down to us,” she said. “They have a 10-inch pipe from as far as Walmart, but Region 9 isn’t at the end of that water pipe.” The flow test at the closest hydrant at Ware Butler, which is beside the school, is 350 gallons per minute, she said.

Gammon said officials are looking at everything from tank systems to funding sources to try to move the process along.

“But that’s going to take time. If we were to decide on a tanking system — and we haven’t — our board needs to become educated on that,” she said. “If they say it’s a good two months to even build the tank and then to get it on site and they can’t install it until spring at least, if not summer.”

She said Fire Chief Mat Theriault had recommended a 25,000-gallon tank. The tank and installation cost could be up to $175,000 or more, but it would not take care of future expansion.

“This is all bond money and we have said we are not going above the bond money. I want communities to know that,” Gammon said.

In November 2024, a majority of the 16 towns that send students to the school approved a $809,284 bond to purchase equipment such as toolboxes, welders, a dump truck, a work truck, kayaks, tents, canoes, paddle boards, a brake lathe, snow machines, a docking system, and a mini excavator, for the technical school’s classes.

“We had hoped that everything was going to be done by the end of this last calendar year,” Ross said. “As you can see, they are not complete. Fortunately, through the state and through these grant programs, we were able to get extensions to allow us to continue the work. As anyone knows if they’ve done any constructions, as much as you think you have all the things in the correct order, you can always find something that’s going to be a hiccup. Well, we found one major hiccup.”