CAMDEN — A request from the Five Town Community School District to hold a referendum Jan. 14 so that voters in Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport can consider a $7.3 million bond to pay for four different projects elicited a feisty response from the Camden Select Board Dec. 3.

The issue was not the expenditures themselves, but the process and timing by which the bond proposal appeared before the board, and voters. The vote to sign the warrant was split, with Board Chair Susan Dorr and members Alison McKellar and Ken Gross voting yes, while board members Tom Hedstrom and Chris Nolan voted no.

Board member Tom Hedstrom criticized the Five Town CSD for not preparing and presenting its proposed bond at the Nov. 5 elections.

Hedstrom noted there would be an additional burden on the municipal staffs of the five towns, "because you were not able to adequately back-plan for this election," he said.

Five Town CSD Superintendent Maria Libby responded at the Dec. 3 meeting that all the information for the bond proposal had yet to be collected in order to place it before voters in November.

Hedstrom said he was supportive of the projects, but not the process, noting there is no opportunity in this school vote to allow for the circulation of absentee ballots.

"I am not asking this be turned down by the electorate," he said. "I am saying the process here should be happening at a regular town meeting."

The Five Town CSD, which governs Camden Hills Regional High School, held an emergency meeting Nov. 26 to ready the warrants to put before the Select Boards in each of the five towns this month for the vote, which has been scheduled to take place in five weeks.

The CSD will hold a public hearing on the referendum January 2, 6 p.m., in the Rose Hall Board Room at the Knowlton Street campus of the Camden-Rockport Middle School.

Per state statute, the CSD must request the municipality to countersign the warrant before sending it on to voters.

"We are the gatekeepers of the town meetings and warrants," said Camden Town Manager Audra Caler, Dec. 3. "Clerks can conduct elections and the school district has a number of capital projects. They want to make the spring bond sale at the Maine Municipal Bond Bank, and the only way they are going to make that May bond sale is to have a winter referendum on the bond and capital items they are hoping to fund. That is why the referendum election is proposed for January."

The Maine Bond Bank was created in 1971 by the Maine State Legislature and provides Maine municipalities, school systems, water and sewer districts, and other governmental entities access to low-cost capital funds through the sale of tax-exempt bonds.

Caler noted that because the CSD is holding the referendum votes, the election will happen, "regardless of whether you countersign the warrant or not."

"For this election only, each town’s polling place will be its town office," the CSD said Dec. 5. "For more information on voting, please contact the town clerks."

At the Dec. 3 meeting, Superintendent Maria Libby presented an overview of the projects.

"We're looking to go to bond for $7.3 million dollars," said Libby.

While the total cost of the projects is $8.9 million, Libby said much of the funding for repairs at the Strom Auditorium at the high school will be sought through donations.

The projects at the 25-year-old high school include:

HVAC Repair and Replacement, $2.5 million

According to the CSD, the geothermal system at the high school, built in 1999, provides 10% of the heating and 90% of the cooling capacity at the school, and it has failed. The boilers are also at the end of their lifespan.

Following analysis of options, a process that included fixing the open loop geothermal, going with a closed loop system, installing air-based heat pumps, or replacing the boilers and installing an air-cooled chiller, the CSD Board of Directors recommends installing the latter, "because it was the most cost effective," according to the CSD.

Replacement Siding and Windows, $3.14 million. The CSD has $800,000 in its capital reserve fund to help pay for the repairs.

The siding on the high school has begun to deteriorate and is falling off, causing water infiltration, the CSD said. Window sills are also failing. 

Artificial turf athletic field, $2.6 million

The Don Palmer Field at the high school, "cannot meet the demands of our prolific athletic teams, including available time and level of wear and tear," the CSD said. "The district came up dry in its attempt to build an additional grass field. The District determined that our only viable option to sustain our sports program was to convert the Don Palmer field to turf and install lights, which will essentially double our field capacity."

Strom Auditorium repairs, $163,000

One third of the seats at the Strom need replacing, and lighting and sound upgrades are required to ensure the space is in compliance with safety standards, the CSD said. The cost of the repairs and upgrades is estimated at $1.5 million, but the the majority of that total is to be raised through donations, and partially offset by other CSD funds, the CSD said.

At the Dec. 3  Select Board meeting, Libby noted that the engineers had gathered the project cost information, but not in time for the November elections.

"We did not know if we would do a private bond sale or a municipal bond," said Libby. "We decided for a number of reasons that it would be better off going with the Municipal Bond Bank."

The district wanted to get the bonds lined up before the district's annual budget season, which begins in February, she said.

Camden Select Board member Chris Nolan asked about the need for artificial turf.

"What is the driver on that," he asked.

Libby said the school board held a meeting in November with 40-50 people in attendance. Most people there were in support of turf, she said.

"We just don't have enough field capacity," she said.

Half of the high school students particiapte in sports.

"We have about as many sports teams as any school in the state," she said. "So our fields get a lot of use."

She explained the history of the artificial turf proposal, saying he school board had decided a few years ago not to pursue acquisition of artificial turf, and instead had elected to create another grass field.

"We recently built a road that connects the elementary and high schools and that impacted the practice field that football had used," she said. "We are also relocating a special ed program that is in the basement of the school in rooms with no windows. We are using capital reserve to build a small building that will go onto the practice field, so the practice field has been taken out of equation."

She said over the past few years, the school has wanted to build another grass field but recently the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has oversight of large projects the affect wetlands, told the district that it could not building another grass field on the property.

The only option to expand the facility is to convert the Don Palmer field to artificial turf and put lights onto it, resulting in a mult-use field that can be used more often.

The heating and cooling system at the school, she said, resulted from an analysis that indicated it would be costly to repair the geothermal wells that were used in the school's original design.

"We are abandoning geothermal," said Libby. "We have to cap our geothermal wells."

She said the proposed purchase of propane boilers and an air-cooled chiller is the least expensive option for the long-term.

Board member Hedstrom asked if the information was new in the last four weeks.

"We have been talking about the athletic fields for two years, and HVAC system since last year," said Libby. "It might be new to some people who are hearing it now."

The Strom repair list was new to her this fall, she said.

"We have just been able to get all the cost figures together to figure what we need to go out for bond," said Libby.

"You've known about these projects for some time and you knew we had a town meeting in early November," said Hedstrom. "It is is concerning that there is a significant amount of town staff time that goes into creating another special town meeting. It was known well in advance. We had an election just four weeks ago. That would have been the appropriate time."

He added: "It is disappointing to me and I am not going to be supportive of this for that."

Hedstrom is concerned about an anticipated low-turnout at the polls in January.

"Your best opporutnity was four weeks ago," he said.  

Libby said she understood, but clarified that in order to have placed the project articles before voters in November, the CSD would have had to have all the cost information by the end of September.

"We are doing the best we can with the information we have when we had it," she said.

Hedstrom reiterated his points.

"We have been diligently working on this as best we can," said Libby.

The two continued discussing the logistics of the CSD, and Hedstrom said the district was not well organized.

"I take exception to that," said Libby. "We are incredibly well organized. We drove to Augusta to get the DEP [Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection] to answer questions because they were not responding to us. We went out of our way and we have done a lot. Our other option is to wait until the June referendum and go a year later, which I don't think is the most responsible thing to do for the taxpayer because the costs will go up."

Hedstrom said the CSD should have put the projects before the voters in November.

"We work efficiently and are well organized," said Libby.

Hedstrom said he was not opposed to the projects, but disputed the process.

The CSD said Dec. 5 in a news release that if voters approve, the district will begin repaying the bond in 2026.

"That payment will add an additional 4.5 – 6% (depending how the repayment is structured) to the FY26 Five Town CSD school budget.

"We have not pulled together the requested budget yet (that is first presented to the school board in February) but expect it to come in around 10% including this bond payment.

"School administrators will scrutinize every line in the budget to bring it in as low as possible while maintaining a quality education.

"The reality is that we need to maintain our facilities and the cost of doing so has risen precipitously in the past five years. Not completing these projects at this time could result in much greater costs down the line."

For more information about the bond referendum, including details on proposed projects and tax implications, contact the Five Town CSD Central Office at 236-3358 or email maria.libby@fivetowns.net. 

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657