BELFAST, Maine — Belfast-area voters have decided to borrow $7.6 million to fix up their 51-year-old high school, allowing the district to push forward planning the renovations.
Residents of RSU 71 supported the bond to by a vote of 3,704 to 2,823 during last week’s election. Voters in Belfast and Searsmont backed the referendum, while a majority in Belmont, Morrill and Swanville opposed it.
“I’m optimistic and feeling positive that we can move forward with these needed repairs on the high school,” Superintendent Paul Knowles said Tuesday.
Knowles is scheduled to sit down with architects from Bangor-based WBRC to review plans and projected costs and to get a better idea of the construction timeline now that voters have given the go-ahead to pursue the project.
Once the final design is ironed out, the project will go to bid.
Knowles said the timeline hasn’t be set, but the bulk of the work likely would happen next fall. He said there’s some possibility that renovations at the pool could happen over the summer. Meanwhile, the school district is working with engineering firm Siemens to plan improvements to the building’s aging heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
“This is all preliminary work right now,” Knowles said.
The bond money will cover improvements in several parts of the school. The crumbling concrete and steel entry canopy will be replaced, the pool resurfaced, cramped cafeteria expanded, kitchen overhauled, and stage and special education areas renovated. The 1960s-era locker room with its rusted, dented lockers also will be updated.
The math wing, a newer addition to the high school, was poorly constructed and has seen significant problems, according to Knowles. It will be torn down, and a two-story education space with eight classrooms will be built in its place.
The district’s central office will move from its current location, a small building along Waldo Avenue, and relocate to the main school building.
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