An affordable senior housing development, at least one new public playground, and several more recreation options will likely be underway for Waldoboro in the next year. The Waldoboro Select Board heard updates on the A.D Gray School redevelopment, public playground options, and other recreation grant opportunities at its Tuesday, March 28 meeting.
After years of development and changes in direction, plans to demolish the former A.D. Gray School and replace it with affordable senior housing are taking shape, according to Volunteers of America Northern New England’s Vice President of Business Development and Implementation Brian Sites.
“Things are starting to move very quickly,” Sites said.
Volunteers of America plans to demolish the existing structure and replace it with a 36-unit building. The property’s sale was approved by Waldoboro voters last June, but is still in negotiations.
The school, built in 1935 and vacant since 2009, went on the market in 2011. Volunteers of America first proposed converting the building, but a structural assessment in 2021 found the building’s brick façade is unstable, along with other structural problems.
A project application for the demolition and rebuild has been submitted to the planning board and will be reviewed at its next meeting on Thursday, April 13. If the board approves the application, Sites said Volunteers of America hopes to make outside funding deadlines in June, transfer the property title, abate asbestos, and demolish the building this year.
The project cost has increased from an estimated $6.2 million to $8.2 million since first proposed in 2020, according to Sites, largely because of the change in plans from renovating the existing structure to building a new one.
All other plans remain the same, he said, including the affordable and senior housing designations. The timeline has shifted, however; construction is expected to begin in late 2024 and carry into the next year, with a move-in date to be determined.
The project is funded entirely by state and federal sources including MaineHousing and the Maine Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Sites. Volunteers of America does not have funds of its own and will not receive any from the town, he said in January.
Volunteers of America’s project architects reviewed public and board feedback from a January pre-application and changed the submitted design to include a modified mansard roof and horizontal color lines.
A pitched roof option was also presented following public comment. The flat roof design would accommodate heat pumps for each individual unit, while the pitched design would condense them to three running internally. With this design, an outage would affect more residents, Sites said.
Volunteers of America also arranged community forums with the town for citizen input on the project and design. Sessions will be held at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Monday, April 10 in the town office, with a third possible on Monday, April 24, depending on the results.
The select board also reviewed several designs and quotes for a public playground at the town recreation complex on West Main Street, presented by Waldoboro Recreation Director Marcus Benner.
Waldoboro has not had a public playground since the sale of the Friendship Street School last year, according to Benner. The new playground would be paid for with the leftover capital fund from the school.
Benner said that, due to space constraints, the town has a choice between swings or a climbing structure. A climbing structure could entertain 30 children, while swings would fit four, he said.
Benner shared designs with quotes from CedarWorks, of Rockport, and Maine Recreation and Design, of Brunswick. He suggested the plastic and metal of the latter option, and said they would last longer and were less likely to be vandalized.
Board members and Town Manager Julie Keizer said they would like to see swings, and wanted more information about the wood play structure option. Benner said he would get price quotes for swings and call the Hope school about their experience with wood longevity.
In other business, the board discussed several grant submissions for the development of public resources.
The first, requesting $2,500 from Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission’s Assistance with Specific Know-How Program, would cover an asbestos abatement at the Hoffses House adjacent to the Sylvania parcel and an engineering study to create a cap-like covering of the contaminated soil to hold future recreation options. The board voted unanimously to allow Keizer to submit the proposal.
Plans for the site will be discussed at the Sylvania Re-Development Committee’s next meeting on Monday, April 3.
The board approved Planning and Development Director Max Johnstone’s submission of a federal earmark request for $1 million towards construction of a community center and medical arts building in town. A previous $1 million awarded two years ago covers site work, Johnstone said.
Finally, Waldoboro received $17,000 from the New England Mountain Bike Association for multi-use trail development at the Quarry Hill Preserve; Johnstone said he has applied to cover the rest with a grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.
The board also discussed options to transfer a grant obligation from the 1970s to make Waldoboro eligible for federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grants again. A grant award 50 years ago for the construction of now-unusable tennis courts at the A.D. Gray School included a requirement that the area always be available for recreation.
That obligation could be transferred, and Johnstone suggested doing so with the Foster Baseball Field, which has been offered to the town as a donation by the Medomak Valley Little League. As the area is already developed, Johnstone said the only steps are applying for a conversion and completing a Yellow Book appraisal. Waldoboro would then become eligible for grants through the fund again.
Johnstone said repairing the courts would cost almost as much as building new ones. Public tennis courts would likely be available again in the future at the former Sylvania site, subject to Department of Environmental Protection approval, Keizer said.
Johnstone said next steps will be discussed at a future meeting.
The board also authorized a $50,000 cash bond request from Syncarpha Capital, a solar energy firm, on North Nobleboro Road, where the company is installing a solar field.
Public Works Director John Daigle told the board that the company wants to make module deliveries to the site twice a day with loads weight 80,000 to 90,000 pounds when full and 50,000 to 60,000 pounds after delivery. Roads are posted in town to not allow weights over 23,000 pounds.
Daigle asked the company for a bond to cover any repairs that result from use of the road; the select board unanimously accepted it.
Keizer said the company is beginning construction now due to its own delay, not the town’s, as planning board approvals have been in place.
In other business, the board approved a contract for waste management disposal for five years and a new body camera policy for the Waldoboro Police Department.
The Waldoboro Select Board will next meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11 in the town office and online.
