The cause of problems with one of two septic tanks at Jefferson Village School is under investigation, while the school remains open.
According to Principal Peter Gallace, an electrician who was installing an outlet for the building’s water purification treatment system noticed a strong smell Monday afternoon, Feb. 25, after students had left for the day.
“Our custodian pulled off the manhole cover and saw it [the septic tank] was full,” Gallace said. He said one of the pumps is not working. “There are two pumps there. I don’t know if it’s one or both.”
Alternative Organizational Structure 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey said Feb. 26 the exact cause of the problem had not yet been determined.
On Monday evening a truck from Pat Jackson Septic of Augusta pumped out both tanks.
Gallace said Feb. 26 he was waiting for a visit from representative of American Concrete Industries of Veazie, the subcontractor that installed the system for contractor George C. Hall & Sons of Rockland.
Jefferson Village School has been plagued with construction-related issues since before the building opened in September 2011.
Problems with the backup generator that powers all the building’s life safety systems – fire alarms, sprinklers, emergency lights – cropped up only days before a scheduled opening leading to a delay of the first day of school.
Earlier that summer, Jefferson Code Enforcement Officer Stanley Waltz had toured the school and found “a lot of little things” unacceptable – including an incomplete kitchen, unfinished lights and switches, and unfinished interior construction such as windowsills – in addition to the fire safety systems still not in place, Waltz said.
In addition, an inspection by Jefferson Fire Chief, Walter Morris resulted in “several pages of notes and concerns,” Morris said.
Those issues led Waltz to declare that he would not issue his approval for the school to open Sept. 6, 2011, as originally scheduled.
On Jan. 17, 2012 a burst pipe in the school’s emergency sprinkler system flooded water into the library for about half an hour, after freezing and then thawing. No students were in the building at the time. A few teachers in the building for a workshop reported the flooding.
Within a few hours, most of the water had been removed and all the books and moveable furniture were out of the library. No computers were damaged in the incident.
It was determined that the pipe had been improperly surrounded with insulation which kept heat from reaching it.
The schools wood-chip boiler system was up and running before it was found a phone line would be needed to allow the system to be operated remotely.
“It’s just like in a new home,” Bailey said. “You go through a heating season and need to have the heat adjusted. Its a 21st century building. Systems have to work with one another.”
Bailey said the state’s Bureau of General Services is still overseeing construction details. He said grounds work, including work on the baseball field, will not be completed until spring. Bailey said there are also a few electrical and mechanical issues to be resolved.
“This wasn’t one of them,” he said of the septic problem. “We’re still trying to figure out what actually did happen.”
He said $30,000 in constructions costs will be retained until all work is completed.
