Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District trustees talked projects’ statuses with Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 Facilities and Maintenance Director Dave Benner Nov. 4. Benner cited paving and curbing on campus and Boothbay Region Elementary School’s roofing, concrete work and Honeywell Phase II projects. Projects have included door and window work and construction of a new vestibule. Small projects to be finished by Nov. 11 include door cylinders, trim work, floor work, door adjustments and painting.

Benner revisited Boothbay Region High School’s longtime issue with leaky seams along the main BRHS building and newer addition. Benner said he walked the building with contractors Haskell & Hall and projects manager Lewis & Malm.

“We did all four walls, all the nooks and crannies. One interesting thing we found was ... the old school and new addition inside corner from top to bottom on the third floor we could see daylight the whole length.”

Haskell & Hall proposed to clean all affected areas around windows, vents and several vertical corners and replace with new sealant for $26,414 with a strongly advised $5,000 contingency. Benner said it is a cheap price for a persistent problem and might be a candidate to come out of the $85,000 in reserves from recent projects.

Unsure if the $85,000 in reserves would be viable for the project due to the strict spending rules of the bond which funded the BRES projects, AOS 98 Superintendent Keith Laser said his only power for emergency spending would limit him to $25,000. Laser said part of the project could be funded this way; however, trustees opted to wait and put the project out to bid in next year’s budget.

Boothbay Harbor resident Tom Perkins said the price for parking lot and driveway repair at AOS 98’s 51 Emery Lane office is on the heavier side for just the CSD to pick up on its own. Perkins said tying the trustees to $30,000 of work for a building which Southport Central, Georgetown Central and Edgecomb Eddy schools also use appears as favoritism.

Laser said the AOS 98 board’s next meeting is in December, so he asked the trustees to pick up the project so it would be done as soon as possible. Laser noted the AOS 98 system does not pay rent to the CSD for the central office and the AOS 98 office has close to $100,000 in its undesignated fund balance. “The parking lot is not safe and it's only going to get worse as it freezes up,” said Laser. “I wanted their input on whether they would accept responsibility for funding it if the AOS wasn't going to fund it and you heard their response.”

Said Perkins, “I just think it was the wrong sequence of events ... You could certainly call a meeting with the AOS before you bring that to the trustees. It's a conflict of interest.”

The trustees asked Laser to wait on the project and see if the AOS 98 board would support funding it.