Kohler will honor an out-of-date warranty on Boothbay Region Elementary School's failed generator. The $80,000 unit had just 17 hours of runtime since its installation almost 14 months ago. Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 Director of Facilities Dave Benner told Community School District trustees the company responded positively even though the unit timed out of its warranty in December.

Benner said parts are on order and are likely three to four weeks out, but as soon as Boothbay Harbor Sewer District learned of the issue, BHSD offered up one of its generators as a backup. “Without me even needing to reach out, they said they have a 260kW generator (available) … They texted me and 15 minutes later they had it up to the school.”

Travers Electric, the company that installed the Kohler generator, will supply a female plug and an end to go to the transfer switch, said Benner. However, they are having trouble finding all the right fittings. “The parts are about four to six weeks out, but I figured we might as well get it and have it in case.”

Ellsworth firm Design Group Collaborative met with Benner Jan. 19 and 26 to proceed with a second opinion report on the state of the schools and the likely costs of repairs and needed renovations. CSD trustees and committee members requested the separate review after Lavallee Brensinger architects estimated a $34 million cost over 20 years.

AOS 98 Superintendent Robert Kahler said DGC expects to have a final report in by March or April, but will be in touch sooner so the Building Exploratory Committee can look at parts of the LBPA and DGC reports side by side. “When we get the (full) reports, it's going to be apples to apples and both groups are more than willing to meet if there are some significant differences or other things.”

Kahler said a population study of the peninsula region is underway. The study was requested by CSD trustees and committee members during LBPA’s 2020-2021 master planning for a new $50 million school concept. Some of the CSD's vital data has already been provided to the firm and AOS 98 Executive Assistant Evelyn Andrews is in touch with Maine Department of Education on collecting more data.

The 2022-2023 draft budget shows a $260,826 or 5.5% total increase with the trustees’ portion of the budget up 19%. However, compared to the 2020-2021 budget, this year's draft is $69,184 less, said Kahler. The trustees’ increase is mostly due to the absence of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) funds which were distributed to mitigate costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staffing changes, salary and insurance increases and an increase in fuel costs are also factors he said.

“Some of the other factors are what's the global market going to look like especially with Russia and Ukraine and things that are going on there? Insurance also. We're budgeting $12,000 over the current budget which came in $10,000 higher than we budgeted last time … And the range of insurance over the past three years has been between $28,000 and $44,000.”

As the CSD boards dig into the first draft of the budget, Kahler said it will help to keep in mind 1% is about $115,000 of the budget.