Winslow considers demolishing former junior high, but $450,000 environmental cleanup must come first

Nov. 1—WINSLOW — As town officials move to demolish the abandoned junior high building, officials say hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of environmental remediation must be done before any work can begin.

The nearly 100-year-old former school at 6 Danielson St. has sat largely unused for four years since being replaced by the new junior high school down the street.

While officials previously considered building over 40 affordable housing units inside, discussions about demolishing the building have intensified because its walls are full of asbestos and the basement is full of oil leaking from underground tanks.

That work has been held up by the cost of removing such contaminants, which officials say will total over $450,000.

"Not trying to ruin your day, but the numbers are out there and it's going to have to be taken care of," Winslow Public Works director Paul Fongemie told the Town Council Oct. 28. "Preferably before we take the building down."

Removing the school's asbestos fireproofing will cost up to $150,000, Town Manager Ella Bowman said.

Oil in the basement has not spread outside the building's foundation and into the nearby soil, as town officials previously worried. Fongemie said cleaning up oil from the basement would cost upwards of $300,000, with additional costs for transporting and disposing of it.

"The problem is the disposal cost," Fongemie said. "It all has to go to one of the landfills. You're paying $8,500 a ton to dispose of it. Just for disposal, not digging it up and hauling it."

The cost was driven upwards because the oil would have to be transported to Hartland or Old Town, Fongemie said, as they are the nearest landfills accepting such materials.

In response to a question from Councilor Dale Macklin, Bowman said the town does not have money in its budget to pay the $300,000 to cleanup the oil.

"This is going to be an add-on to the cost that we're going to have for stripping out asbestos and tearing down the building," Bowman said. "This is going to have to come out of our fund equity account."

The Town Council discussed earlier this year building 44 affordable housing units and office space for the town government inside the former schoolhouse in a partnership with the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program. The council voted down a similar proposal from KVCAP in 2021.

Bowman said discussions around the renovations have stalled over concern about the price of getting the former junior high up to code.

"This contamination has scared everybody." Bowman said. "This is a big hit, even for the taxpayers."

Winslow has instead inched towards beginning the process of demolishing the building. The town will begin reaching out to bidders to potentially demolish the building in early November, Bowman said, though the town does not yet a precise timeline.

"We can't leave it," Fongemie said. "We can't do anything with that site if it isn't clean."

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