Bar Harbor Town Council and School Board Hold Special Meeting Next Tuesday
Warrant Committee Reorganizes Itself
BAR HARBOR—A duo of recently announced meetings involve the Bar Harbor School Board next week. The board will first hold an executive session at the superintendent’s office on Monday at 4:30 p.m. about the “acquisition and use of real property and economic development.” According to Maine law, executive sessions are allowed for certain reasons and are not open to the public. However, action must be taken in public.
On Tuesday, the Bar Harbor Town Council and Bar Harbor School Board will hold a discussion about the new school building project. This meeting is open to the public and will be on Town Hall Streams. It begins at 5 p.m. in the Council Chambers.
The bids for the Conners Emerson School’s rebuild arrived in late June. The lowest bid was approximately $11 million over budget.
The hand-delivered bids came from Bowman Construction of Newport and Wright-Ryan out of Portland. Bowman’s bid was read first and then Wright-Ryan’s.
Bowman’s bid was for $70,000,960. Wright-Ryan’s came in at $62,956,069.
The new construction budget is $49,501,450.
There is a bid contingency that is $2,475,073. Contingencies are usually meant to cover unknown costs. The total with the contingency included in the budget is $51,976,523.
“That is about an $11,000,000 delta,” School Superintendent Mike Zboray said.
In June, Bar Harbor voters passed a $58 million bond to rebuild the ailing schools, which were built in the 1950s and support the town’s K-8 population. Broken boilers, rain inundation, a wall pulling away from the foundation, poor air exchanges, limited classroom space, and a lack of insulation are just some of the buildings’ recent problems.
At the time, former Conners Emerson School Committee member Robin Sue Tapley said, “We are literally sinking, collapsing, caving in, whatever you want to call it. This building will not be safe forever, whether it’s ceiling tiles coming down, air quality, walls coming out.”
The bond passed 1,005 to 502.
WARRANT COMMITTEE REORGANIZATION
In a pretty quick meeting, the town’s Warrant Committee reorganized itself Tuesday, July 2, with Town Clerk Liz Graves swearing in new members and returning members.
For the role of chair, Eben Salvatore nominated Julie Berberian, Bob Chaplin nominated Chris Smith. Berberian asked that people not vote for her. Berberian had served as vice chair for the last fiscal year and Smith had served as secretary. Smith was unanimously elected.
Louise Lopez ran unopposed for secretary and was unanimously elected.
For the vice chair position Berberian nominated Meg Kelley. Salvatore nominated Kevin DesVeaux. Kelley was voted into the office by a split vote of 8-4 with three abstentions.
Bob Chaplin, Carol Chappell and Steve Boucher attended via Zoom.
All three Warrant Committee members who did not run for reelection had been on the general governance/government subcommittee.
Prior to the meeting adjourning, Salvatore asked for a legal opinion about the committee’s members’ numerous potential conflicts of interest if members need to weigh in on a potential cruise ship ordinance change that might come before the voters in November. Graves said that was possible. Salvatore’s employer is a plaintiff in the federal appeals case of the cruise ship ordinance. Another member had testified on behalf of plaintiffs. One member’s spouse was one of the original citizen petitioners.
The committee will have to meet in August for potential land use ordinance amendments that go before the voters in November. The Planning Board this week moved to have its public hearings on both the cruise ship ordinance and transient accommodations in August.
Disclosure: Shaun Farrar, who is my husband and also writes for the Bar Harbor Story is a member of the Warrant Committee.
UPDATE ON JULY 7: The town has released a packet of materials which detail three potential options. That can be accessed here.
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