A landscaping firm will complete $39,000 of repairs to the athletics field at Bristol Consolidated School, necessary after a June criminal mischief incident, next week.
Patriot Landscaping of Gorham will perform the work after submitting the only bid.
The company bid $41,000 before agreeing to reduce the price to $39,000 or less, depending on expenses.
The Maine School Management Association insures the school and will pay up to $37,500 for the repairs.
A 17-year-old Bristol boy faces a felony charge of aggravated criminal mischief in the case. The boy allegedly drove a four-wheel-drive truck onto the field and did doughnuts, digging deep ruts throughout the outfield.
The boy denied the charge at his initial appearance in July, Lindsay Jones, a juvenile prosecutor with the district attorney’s office, said Aug. 9. His next court date is set for Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. in Lincoln County Superior Court.
The Central Lincoln County School System plans to pursue restitution from the suspect to cover the school’s $1000 deductible and any expense exceeding what the insurance company will pay.
The repairs are expensive because the job calls for the contractor to scrape and level about 32,000 square feet of the field, install sod and irrigate the area.
“The ruts were so deep, it’s not a matter of just scraping it off and leveling it out,” school system Business Manager Kati Hunt said at an Aug. 8 meeting of the Bristol School Committee.
The committee, by a unanimous vote, awarded the bid to Patriot Landscaping for an amount not to exceed $39,000. The deadline to complete the job is Monday, Aug. 19.
BCS students might be able to practice and play on the field in as little as 3 to 4 weeks, although “a couple more weeks might be better,” Superintendent of Schools Steve Bailey said.
BCS Principal Jennifer Ribeiro and Athletic Director Chris Perry will monitor the situation and look into options for practice and game space in the meantime, Bailey said.
A separate project to expand the field is complete.
The school also plans to hire a one-fifth-time math teacher. Ribeiro said she hopes to fill the position from among the school’s educational technicians, some of whom already have the necessary certification and expertise.
The new math teacher will teach one period per day to supplement existing instruction. Funds for the hire are available in the regular education budget after the resignation of an ed tech.
The security upgrades at the main entrance will consist of a camera and intercom, which will allow a school employee to see people in the entryway before remotely unlocking the door.
The school will also purchase blinds to block vision into classrooms in the event of a lockdown and increase flexibility for normal daily use, Bailey said.
Northeast Security Systems Inc. of Wiscasset will install the security system. Homeport Supply of Newcastle will install the blinds.
The school committee voted to place $30,000 of the surplus in a reserve account for future upgrades to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The balance of the reserve account now stands at $150,000.
The other $46,761 will carry forward into the next budget cycle, where it will offset the amount of property taxes necessary to fund education.
The school will collect data in September to determine how summer school attendance affects student performance, Ribeiro said.
The BCS budget funds 50 percent of the approximately $8000 program cost, with the other half from a federal Title I grant for math and reading.
The switch will involve replacing the oil tank at the school with multiple propane tanks outside the school, Bailey said.
