BAR HARBOR — Preliminary building designs for a new Conners Emerson School were released at the last regular Town Council meeting, with some council members left in disbelief over the estimated $67 million price tag.
Members of the Project Committee, including Harriman architectural firm principal Lisa Sawin, presented their recommendation of a new school build after hitting on the aging building’s poor conditions. Recently, a boiler has failed, walls and roofs continually leak, and the library is closed due to poor air quality from plant growth in between the walls.
Conners Emerson Principal Heather Webster said the current building is essentially a money pit. One particular wall needed a $150,000 repair, but water still comes through on rainy days.
Not only would a new school address the mechanical, and ongoing water intrusion issues, it would also combine the separated buildings – Conners and Emerson – to create a 26,000-square-foot increase.
Voters approved a $3 million bond in Nov. 2021 to pay for site plans for a future overhaul. Now town officials are looking to get a finalized design and cost to the voters in June to move ahead with construction. With rising material costs, the project could increase by $6.6 million if it is rejected.
Council member Gary Friedmann calculated that the proposed 90,000-square-foot building would come to $700 per square foot. Treasurer Sarah Gilbert said at that price it would increase the tax rate by 28 percent.
“That’s insane. I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Freidmann said. “I don’t know what is going on with this plan, but you’ve got to come down under $700 a square foot. Something’s got to give here.”
Council member Joe Minutolo worried that voters may reject the project because the median homeowner would have to absorb an additional $1,000 in property taxes after reeling from historical rates of inflation.
Council member Matthew Hochman said that his property tax bills went up 86 percent in the last couple of years, and that another $67 million school project could put many families over the edge.
Sawin said the estimates are a starting point and it is possible for some costs to be shaved off. The Conners Emerson School Committee is to come before the council next month with a finalized concept design and price tag.
Council Chair Valerie Peacock said the town has no choice but to replace the building due to the shape it is in.
“A lot of the time, we talk about school as the heart of our community…but when it comes to budgets, we talk about schools as the drain of our community,” she said. “You would never say that we’re not going to have roads or we’re not going to have electricity or internet. These are fundamental parts of the fabric of our community. It’s our responsibility to educate our kids.”
Victoria DeCoster covers the Bar Harbor area including town boards and committees. She recently moved to the island after graduating from Syracuse University last year. Contact Victoria with tips and story ideas.
