MATTAWAMKEAG, Maine — Residents will vote this month on whether to allow a developer to turn the former Dr. Carl Troutt School into a small-scale wood pellet manufacturing facility that would eventually employ as many as a dozen people, officials said Tuesday.
The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 on Monday to approve David Kidwell’s proposal and to set a special town meeting for the vote at noon on Saturday, March 14 at the town office.
Board Chairman John Whitehouse said he was “cautiously optimistic” that voters would accept the proposal.
“We haven’t had anything positive come into town for quite some time,” Whitehouse said Tuesday. “I am not going to say that it is a huge thing, but something that puts a dozen people to work will have a definite positive impact that we haven’t seen in quite some time.”
Kidwell, of Gorham, said he is doing the project with Inve Properties LLC, a corporation that he formed earlier this year.
“At this point, we are still awaiting state and local government approval before moving forward with the project,” Kidwell said Tuesday.
Real estate Broker Vicki Stanley of McPhail United Country Real Estate of Lincoln, which represents the town, said that if all goes well, Kidwell would install two softwood pellet manufacturing machines at the school, probably within three months of the town vote.
Troutt, which opened in 1973, was one of the oldest, least-populated and most expensive school buildings to maintain in RSU 67 when officials closed it in 2009.
Residents in the town of approximately 680 people voted 52-22 at a special meeting in January to reject a proposal to turn the building into a medical marijuana dispensary. Residents said they feared that the dispensary would draw more crime to the area.
Kidwell would use the gymnasium to house the pellet machines. The rest of the building would accommodate offices and a machine shop, Whitehouse said.
Selectmen favored the second of two purchase proposals, Whitehouse said. Kidwell’s first proposal was to buy the entire parcel and buildings for $65,000. His second proposal is for $50,000, with the town retaining the school’s athletic fields.
Kidwell would pay half at closing and the rest a year later. He seeks split payments to aid his “substantial investment in equipment and upgrades to the building,” Whitehouse said. The town planning board and Maine Department of Environmental Protection must also permit the project, Whitehouse said.
Kidwell is the second developer who has expressed interest in the former school since voters rejected the dispensary. Another individual sought to turn it into a retirement home, but hasn’t gone beyond initial inquiries, Whitehouse said.
The building is close to Interstate 95, a freight rail line and the town fire station, but Stanley believes that Kidwell likes the the property for its large size and access to nearby forests.