Arundel house fire backs up Route 111 traffic

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Arundel_house_fire_backs_up_Route_111_traffic.html

By David Hench dhench@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

ARUNDEL — Traffic remained backed up for miles early Friday afternoon as crews from multiple towns battle a house fire on Route 111, across from Ledge Cliff Drive.

Tom Waterman, who has lived at the house at 728 Alfred Road since 2008, stared in shock as he watched flames devour his two-story farmhouse and the attached garage where he keeps his tools. He said he hauls junk cars for a living, and a sign out front reads “Cash for Junk Cars.”

Waterman said the feeling of seeing his house on fire was indescribable.
Debbie Harris, who lives across the street, said she noticed smoke coming out of the eaves of the house at 11:30 a.m. and called 911. By the time firefighters arrived, she could see flames.

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Best Places To Live in Maine

Down East salutes Arundel

http://post.mainelymediallc.com/news/2014-03-07/Front_Page/Down_East_salutes_Arundel.html

Magazine puts town among Maine’s top six places to live

By Alex Acquisto

Staff Writer

ARUNDEL — In the March issue Best Places to Live, Down East magazine listed Arundel as one of six best places to live in Maine.

Other selected towns include Gorham, Bowdoinham, Hampden, Hope and Turner.
Arundel has approximately 4,100 residents with a median age of 43, according to Down East. Qualifying factors included the exclusion of towns where median household incomes are less than the 95 percent of the state’s median income, which is approximately $48,000; the median household income of Arundel families, according to Down East and the United States Census Bureau, is $60,156. The median home price is $218,000. Approximately 5.5 percent of families are below the poverty line in Arundel.

Statistics also used to determine the top six included towns with graduation rates higher than the 85 percent state median (Arundel’s graduation rate is 86.5 percent). Anecdotal evidence contributed to the top six selections to help writers gauge, among other things, the “intangible qualities like sense of community,” according to the article.

Referring to Arundel’s secession from Kennebunkport as an “effort to preserve its agrarian roots,” the article states: “The town — which reverted to Kennebunkport’s 18th-century name, Arundel, in 1957 — remains a rural outpost, a rare pastoral respite along the I-95/coastal corridor in York County that residents prize.”

Also included is the mention of Bentley’s Saloon on Route 1, The Landing School, and the historical novelist Kenneth Roberts of Kennebunkport, who wrote a book simply titled, “Arundel.”

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Board takes first steps toward new building plan

http://post.mainelymediallc.com/news/2014-03-07/Community/Board_takes_first_steps_toward_new_building_plan.html

By Alex Acquisto

Staff Writer

KENNEBUNK — Compromises were made and ties were severed on Monday night at what was the most productive school board meeting since the Jan. 21 referendum.

The RSU 21 board of directors made three notable decisions Monday: unanimously deciding to keep an elementary school open in each of the three communities in the district; voted not to hire a firm to conduct surveys in each town; and set the starting estimate for renovating Mildred L. Day School, Consolidated School and Kennebunk High School at $55 million — $20 million less than the initial proposal.

“OK, so we’re finally discussing stuff at a board meeting. I think this is positive,” said board member Art LeBlanc at the March 3 meeting that spanned four hours.

Board member Tim Hussey initially asked to set a clear scope of the three projects to make it easier for the facilities and finance committees to address issues as they move forward.

Later, board member Frank Drigotas, reading from his iPhone, proposed the first revision: that the cost of the three combined building projects not exceed $52 million. The board voted down that motion, 7-5. Drigotas also suggested that the board’s proposed renovation project sever its ties with the Southern Maine Visual and Performing Arts Center. 

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Summit brings together three towns

http://post.mainelymediallc.com/news/2014-03-07/Front_Page/Summit_brings_together_three_towns.html

By Alex Acquisto

Staff Writer 

 

KENNEBUNK — In a perhaps long-overdue convergence of the minds, town administrators from Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, including Superintendent Andrew Dolloff of RSU 21, held a combined public meeting at Kennebunk’s town hall on Wednesday, Feb. 26 to discuss the towns’ and the school district’s capital needs.

The meeting came on the coattails of contention surrounding a $75 million school renovation proposal the voters shot down at a Jan. 21 referendum.

Each town manager presented, essentially, a capital plan that included fiscal expenditures on necessities such as roads and road equipment, and made note of significant amounts of money to be spent in the next couple of years, i.e. a new town hall in Arundel.

Dolloff also presented the methods by which the past proposal’s building plans for each of the three schools were drafted.

A renovation proposal for Mildred L. Day School in Arundel, Kennebunk High School and Kennebunkport Consolidated School will likely face voters as early as June and as late as November.

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South Portland school plan offers lessons for RSU 21

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140306-NEWS-403060329

 

By Jennifer Feals

also by Laura Dolce

yccs@seacoastonline.com

March 06, 2014 2:00 AM

KENNEBUNK — Three years of meetings to come up with a plan, complaints that a turf field and second gym were "frills," an aging high school in need of tens of millions in repairs and renovations — all ultimately leading to a failed school bond vote after strong voter turnout.

Sound familiar?

It might, but it's not the recent RSU 21 vote. In fact, it was the 2007 failure of the South Portland High School building vote.

The South Portland project brought before voters in 2007 was for the high school only, which suffered from many of the same problems plaguing Kennebunk High School: old buildings, poorly constructed additions, antiquated systems and infrastructure and spaces not conducive to today's educational climate.

When the project was first presented to voters in 2007, it failed, with 6,495 residents casting ballots — 1,564 in support and 4,726 against. Seventy-five percent of voters voting against the original project, which carried a price tag of $56 million.

According to a Nov. 16, 2007 article in The Sentry, the plans included "the construction of a three-story addition for science classrooms and a new library, a three-floor classroom and administration wing, a two-story addition for a new cafeteria and kitchen, a two-story classroom addition on the Highland Avenue side of the building and a single-story gymnasium."

The plans also proposed relocating the existing tennis courts and the construction of a "multipurpose artificial turf field."

In South Portland, the public was divided over the 2007 vote, with letters to the editor in the local paper, the Current, reflecting many of the same issues — and community tension — that were seen in RSU 21:

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Cut $20 million from plan, RSU 21 board tells building committees

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140304-NEWS-140309920

By Jennifer Feals

jfeals@seacoastonline.com

March 04, 2014 12:05 PM

KENNEBUNK — Proposed renovations to Kennebunk High School, Mildred L. Day School and Kennebunkport Consolidated School should cost no more than $55 million — $20 million less than a proposal voters failed in January, it was decided Monday night.

This was the charge the RSU 21 Board of Directors put before the district’s Facilities Committee and building committees during an at-times heated meeting Monday night, as the group faced the difficulties of moving forward after voters failed the $75 million proposal in January by a 2-to-1 margin.

The board on Monday supported a motion by Director Frank Drigotas that the targeted estimated cost to renovate the facilities be no higher than $42 million for KHS — with no relationship with the Southern Maine Center for the Visual and Performing Arts — $4 million for Consolidated and $9 million for M. L. Day.

The motion states that the Facilities Committee oversee the work of developing new construction proposals, reengaging each of the building committees and members of the public to develop these plans for consideration by the full Board at the June 2 meeting.

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New RSU 21 plan would keep all schools, reconfigure population

By Jennifer Feals

jfeals@seacoastonline.com

February 28, 2014 3:31 PM

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140228-NEWS-140229714

KENNEBUNK – Architects presented a plan on Friday that could keep an elementary school open in the three communities of RSU 21 while reconfiguring the student population, keeping Sea Road School and possibly reducing construction costs.

The Facilities Committee is exploring options after voters in January failed a $75 million proposal to renovate Kennebunk High School, Mildred L. Day School, and Kennebunkport Consolidated School by a two-to-one margin.

Architect Dan Cecil discussed the option with the RSU 21 Facilities Committee Friday, under which Sea Road School could house all fourth and fifth grade students from Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, while Kennebunk students in kindergarten through third grade and Arundel students in fourth and fifth grades could attend Kennebunk Elementary School.

Under the plan, Mildred L. Day School and Consolidated School could hold students in kindergarten through third grade in those towns, which would reduce the work needed at M.L. Day and Consolidated by four and three rooms, respectively, among other cost savings.

The costs of the plan are not yet known, Cecil said, but he did say the district would face costs of running four elementary schools – as opposed to three which is currently the vision within the district's master plan that suggests closing Sea Road School in the future.

“The idea was would there be a way to shift students around so they could go to school closer to their house,” Cecil said. “The point is that you end up running four schools instead of three and you're going to have some operational costs.”

In addition, he said the plan could make for small student populations at M.L. Day and Consolidated in the future.

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