Town of Greenville to oversee planned child care/community center

GREENVILLE — Earlier this year more than $1.5 million in federal funding was secured with the passage of the 2023 omnibus spending bill to build a facility on the Greenville Consolidated School campus to house a child care center, pre-K classrooms, and community recreation center. The project is still in the development stage but the Greenville Select Board will own the building once it opens.

In the meantime the town will manage an environmental review, being reimbursed for all expenses by the Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation. Town Manager Mike Roy will make decisions on behalf of the Greenville Select Board, as motions for each were approved during a June 21 meeting.

Joining the meeting over Zoom, YES Project committee Chairperson John Contreni said the youth, education, and sports group is working to establish a community building on the Pritham Avenue school campus at the site of the now demolished Nickerson Elementary School. He said the committee has met five times since April to discuss the project to house an early childhood center, pre-K classroom, child care center, and community room.

Contreni said he had a pair of documents for the select board, an agreement between the Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation and the town as the foundation was awarded a $1.56 million federal United States Department of Housing and Urban Development grant. 

“The foundation does not have the mechanism to manage a project, to disburse the monies, it’s just a group of volunteers,” Contreni said. He said the agreement would designate the town as the partner so the municipality can manage the grant, manage the project, hire the contractor, and more as a sub-recipient.

“And when the project is finished, the town would own and manage the facility so that’s a tremendous gift to the town,” Contreni said. He said under the agreement the town could draw monies from the foundation’s grant.

A separate memorandum of agreement shows how the arrangement will work and the responsibilities of an environmental review that needs to be done before any other site work and constitution.. “The town is designated as the responsible entity, that means the town will manage the environmental review,” Contreni said, with the foundation reimbursing all expenses.

“The foundation has the money, takes it out of its pocket, and puts it in the pocket of the town,” he said.

“This is a long-term relationship that will end with the town owning a $1.56 million building,” Contreni said.

Roy said Ware Butler has created some preliminary building architectural renderings. “The goal is to stay within that grant money,” he said, with several fundraisers planned to help with additional costs including a golf event in early July.

Several months ago the Yes Project committee learned the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council awarded the project a $20,000-plus EPA Brownfield Funding grant that will cover the entire cost of conducting a required environmental impact assessment of the site for the new building. 

If grant administration and construction go well, the move-in date for the facility’s occupants could occur in two years.

In other business, Roy said Byers Contracting of Hermon has been awarded the bid for a window project at the Shaw Public. The company had the low bid $13,200, of four which ranged up to $14,975.

The town manager said he met with a Byers Contracting representative earlier in the day. “We discussed what windows need to go where,” he said.

There is a 3-week wait for windows from Paradigm Windows of Portland so the work will likely be done by early August.

Roy said a pair of heat pumps that were at the now torn down fire station will be moved to the library, and an estimate and timeframe is expected next week.

“A lot of great upgrades to that building are happening,” Roy said, including a new door, gutters, and paint on the trim.

Select Chairperson Geno Murray said the neighboring town of Shirley has opted to go with Monson for fire protection as of July 1. Murray and Roy will work on documents to specify that Greenville no longer is responsible for covering Shirley after the end of the month. Letters will be sent to the Shirley Select Board and county officials.

Fire Chief Sawyer Murray said the slab for the new public safety building is set to be poured in a couple of weeks. 

Information and pictures on the project are on the town website and Facebook page to follow the progress.

The public safety building will house both the fire and police departments to help with outdated spaces and building code violations in the old facility. 

“The new public parking signs are up, directing traffic to the school for free public parking all day parking — trailers included,” Roy said.