HAMPDEN, Maine — The RSU 22 school board approved Wednesday night a schematic design aimed at improving safety and traffic flow on the campus of the McGraw and Weatherbee schools, located off busy Route 1A.
The proposed site and traffic circulation improvement concepts developed by the Bangor architectural and engineering firm WBRC are the first part of the final phase of a master plan that the school district has been working on for more than two decades, according to Assistant Superintendent Emil Genest.
Proposed are changes to school bus and passenger vehicle traffic patterns, including student drop-off areas, playground locations and bus areas.
During the meeting, Genest said that plans are far from firmed up.
“This is not etched in stone. It is just concept,” he said. Cost estimates have not yet been developed, and it’s not yet clear if a referendum will be ready to go before district voters in June or November.
Plans for the improvements, however, come at a time when the district’s member towns of Hampden, Winterport, Newburgh and Frankfort already are groaning under the weight of budget pressures unrelated to those they already are feeling from increasing education costs.
In recent correspondence and during a presentation Wednesday night to the school board, Hampden Town Manager Angus Jennings pointed out that the town’s undesignated fund balance has fallen to 7.4 percent — well under the 10 to 12 percent recommended by the Maine Municipal Association. On top of that, sewer rates are inadequate to cover operational costs and debt service.
Jennings, who came on board last summer, also said that Hampden’s streets and road reserve budgets for fiscal year 2016 were fully depleted before the year even began. And those were just some of the budget issues the town is facing, which include the need to maintain its roads and sidewalks, invest in public safety and public works vehicles, the town’s marina and recreational facilities.
For the first time in at least 15 years — and perhaps ever — the town needs to borrow money, he said, adding that the town, which adopted a $6.8 million budget for this fiscal year, has had to issue a tax anticipation note for up to $2 million in order to meet its cash flow needs.
“Given the backlog of projects, there is no question that worthwhile projects will be tabled” and rescheduled, “if at all,” he said Wednesday night. “Given the share of the overall budget allocated to RSU 22, it is clear that the [town’s budget development process] would be far more meaningful with the school board’s participation.”
Though he didn’t take to the podium during the meeting, Winterport Town Manager Philip Pitula pointed out that in a Jan. 4 letter to school officials the breakdown for the town’s property taxes this year amounted to 83.10 percent for education, 13.60 percent for the county tax and only 3.3 percent for municipal needs.
“As we approach the next budget cycle along with the last phase of the master plan for RSU 22, the [Town] Council felt that it was imperative to intervene early in the process, as they feel that our residents cannot absorb continuing out of control increases,” he said.
Part two of the master plan’s final phase, which will be dealt with later, will include possible construction to alleviate crowding resulting from enrollment growth at the two schools, which house Hampden’s prekindergarten through grade five student populations. It also will explore the feasibility of connecting the two schools and create space for art and music instruction.