MECHANIC FALLS – School Union 29 office employees want to get out of their 24 Elm St. office space as quickly as possible due to mold in the basement.

School officials are working with the union towns of Poland, Mechanic Falls and Minot to put together a finance package that would allow a permanent office to be built in Poland, said William Doughty, assistant superintendent of schools.

“We’ve been approved for going forward to purchase new offices,” said Doughty. “We’re close to concluding a deal with Poland.”

School officials originally had planned to buy the Elm Street building they are renting in Mechanic Falls. However, the discovery of mold killed the deal.

Then the Rail Station, a former restaurant in Mechanic Falls, came on the market. Earlier this year, school officials had pursued buying that building and lot. However, the asking price exceeded the $250,000 approved previously by voters of the three towns, said David Griffiths, a member of the Mechanic Falls School Committee.

The town of Poland is already in the process of building a storage shed off Aggregate Road for Poland school buses and a smaller building for school transportation employees to use for meeting and dispatching. Poland voters approved floating a bond of about $2 million, which sold last year, to fund the project, said Town Manager Richard Chick.

“Right now the discussion is whether it makes sense to include office space for the school union,” Chick said.

The advantage of including the school union office in the town construction project would be the cost savings from not having to buy land or install additional mechanical systems, such as heating and plumbing, Chick said.

“The operative assumption is that it will have to fit the $250,000 budget,” he said. “If not, the project is dead. But I believe it can be done.”

Before the project can go forward, the three towns will need to make an interlocal agreement and decide the method for funding the construction. Poland would then have to receive permission from Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection to modify its construction plans, which already has received a site permit, said Chick. The town manager estimated that the modification approval would take about 90 days.

The Poland Board of Selectmen will have to review the financing package and decide to include it on the warrant for its annual town meeting on April 24. The board meets next on April 6.

In the meantime, Poland is proceeding with preparing its construction site, and school administration is looking into renting space elsewhere until it can find a permanent home.

“It’s really not a safe situation in there right now,” said Griffiths. “I think they want to get out of there as soon as they can.”

Minot held its town meeting earlier this month. Voters there approved the concept of building office space in Poland but will have to hold a special town meeting to approve funding, said Doughty. Mechanic Falls voters will gather on May 18 for their town meeting to decide the issue.