PERU – Selectmen got a view of the plans for a new SAD 21 elementary school Monday night and were told ground may be broken by October.
Robert Curtis, architect with PDT Architects, and Bill Hoffman, civil engineer with DeLuca Hoffman, gave presentations on the Route 108 project. Curtis said the school will be for prekindergarten through grade five and accommodate 380 students. He said bid requests would be made at the end of August and ground may be broken by October. The school is scheduled to open in September 2008.
Curtis said the main level has offices, a nurse’s station, two prekindergarten rooms, gym and cafeteria. There are also art and music rooms in that wing, designed to keep the noisier activities in one area.
The academic wing will have two floors with the library in the center of the first-floor wing. Curtis said the school will have state-of-the-art technology. Windows are designed to let in the most light to cut down on lighting expense.
Hoffman described the grounds on the 35-acre site. There will be an outer loop driveway with 100 parking spots in the day and 120 at night. The school will not be visible from Route 108, but the entrance will be on Route 108.
He said project personnel have satisfied all of the archaeological and environmental requirements.
Selectman Bill Hine asked what is the greatest challenge with the site.
Hoffman quickly replied it is boulders, and blasting would begin soon.
Hoffman said the well is 400 feet deep and produces 40 gallons of water a minute. He said schools generally use 4,000 gallons a day.
In other matters before the board, Road Commissioner David Gammon said his crew will be starting work on the salt and sand shed site this week. He told the board the building will have to be turned parallel to the road because there is not enough room to get the 70-foot wide shed on the site as originally planned.
Selectmen Rodney Jamison and Dennis Thibodeau voted to have Gammon check on the progress daily; Hine voted against.
Harold and Nancy Rowley were appointed ballot clerks for the referendum Tuesday, and Hugh Rowley was appointed to the Planning Board.
A building permit was approved for David Sinclair on Hammond Hill Road for a garage. A building permit for Chris Cunningham on Oldham Road was denied because of a shoreland zoning issue.
Voting will be held today at the Rockemeka Grange Hall on:
• changing the annual town meeting vote to a referendum at the polls starting in 2007.
• authorizing selectmen to expend the amount appropriated for the last fiscal year in the event that the appropriation proposed for this fiscal year in any particular budget category is not approved; and
• amending the shoreland zoning ordinance.
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