Scarborough continues to be one of the fastest-growing communities in Maine and with that growth comes a strain on municipal facilities.
That’s why the Town Council is set to move “vigorously forward” on a new long-range facilities plan that includes several multimillion dollar projects within the next few years.
Among those projects are two that have been a high priority for many years – a new public safety building, pegged at between $13 and $15 million, and a library expansion, pegged at between $4.5 and $5.5 million.
The draft facilities plan was unveiled at a council workshop last week and Bill Donovan, the council chairman, said it’s his intention to “actively pursue” adoption of the plan and to move forward on getting the projects approved and built.
In introducing the draft plan, Town Manager Tom Hall said the town has never had “a cogent, clear plan for its facilities needs” or how those needs fit in with each other.
He said this new facilities plan was designed to develop a list of operational needs, looking both in the short term, within the next five years, and within the long term, within the next 25 years.
Hall said all of the cost estimates attached to each project in the plan are “very, very tentative” and the goal is for the council to ultimately adopt the plan and use it as a “guiding document” for future development.
Town Planner Dan Bacon took the lead on the project and told the council at its March 2 workshop that “Scarborough has been growing rapidly for decades” and that the growing population has “changing expectations, which is putting a strain on our facilities.”
Bacon said the goal with the long-range facilities plan is to “lay out a framework for pacing projects” and that being cost-effective and creating partnerships for cost sharing would be a high priority for each project.
He understands there may be disagreements among councilors and residents about what projects represent a need as opposed to something that would just be nice to have, but Bacon said there are also some projects that are essential.
While the council could approve smaller capital improvement projects, anything costing more than $400,000 requires voter approval.
Donovan called the facilities plan “terribly important” and said such long-term planning had been put off during the recent economic downturn, but now it’s time to move forward again.
Among the essential needs the council appeared to agree on last week was the need for a new public safety building, which has been under discussion for more than a decade.
In anticipating construction of this new facility, which would jointly house the police department and the central fire station, the town has been buying land adjacent to Town Hall on Route 1.
The goal, according to Bacon, is to construct a 43,000-square-foot building, which would be fully integrated within the existing municipal campus in Oak Hill.
Another high priority project for many years is a 10,000-square-foot addition to the library, which would fulfill a longstanding need for more space for visitors, the collections, the staff and for holding meetings and other events.
In addition to the immediate needs for a new public safety building and library expansion, the facilities plan also calls for construction of a new community center within the next five to 15 years.
That building, at about 30,000-square-feet, could cost between $9 and $10.5 million, while expanding both the Dunstan and North Scarborough fire stations could cost a combined $6 million.
One of the long-term needs identified in the plan is a new fire station in West Scarborough, which is estimated to cost nearly $4 million. However, Bacon said with slower growth in that rural area of town, there may not be a need for a fire station there.
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