By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

South Portland residents may have rejected a $56 million bond for an overhaul of the existing high school, but the need for a more modern educational facility has been on the minds of members of the Secondary Schools Facilities Committee since the referendum failed in November by a margin of more than 3,000 votes. 

“The building is 50-plus years old,” Secondary Schools Facilities Committee Facilitator Steve Bailey said. “The entrances and exits are limited, there are 11 different level changes, which causes problems with [Americans with Disabilities Act] regulations, some parts were built with very light construction and have suffered water infestation, and educational needs have changed significantly.”

Now the Secondary Schools Facilities Committee is looking into the possibility of building a completely new high school facility elsewhere in the city. South Portland Planning and Development Director Tex Haeuser gave a presentation to the committee July 17 that focused on seven different parcels of land within the city limits large enough to house a new high school – with a minimum lot size around 27 acres – including city owned property such as the South Portland Municipal Golf Course and the Wainwright Recreational Fields, and privately owned lots such as the Cox Farm on Highland Avenue. 

“None jumped out as being a positive fit,” Bailey said. 

According to a letter accompanying Haeuser’s presentation to the group, the South Portland Municipal Golf Course received a “less favorable” rating for site availability and cost due to a National Parks Service Land and Water Conservation Fund grant that helps fund the $4.6 million facility and prohibits the property from being used for any other purpose unless approved by the National Park Service. 

Maine Bureau of Parks and Land’s Manager of Grants and Recreation Division, Mick Rogers, said the National Park Service had approved similar conversions before.

“We do this three or four times a year,” he said. 

Rogers explained the National Park Service generally approves the conversion if a similar recreational facility is built elsewhere, meaning if the new school eliminated the existing municipal golf course, another golf course or similar recreational facility would have to be built elsewhere in the city. 

The Wainwright Recreational Fields also received a “less favorable” rating for site availability and costs due to deed restrictions that stipulate the property may only be used for recreation.

“The same [restriction] has prevented pursuit of an east-west connector road [from Highland Avenue to Route One],” Haeuser wrote.

Both the South Portland Municipal Golf Course and Wainwright Recreational Field properties received a better availability rating than the 26-acre Cox Farm on Highland Avenue, which Haeuser categorized as “least favorable” for a new school facility for it’s availability, cost and access.

“The goal is to preserve it as open space,” property owner Stanley Cox said. “We have kind of a farm atmosphere there and we’ve received favorable comments from everybody who loves it right in the middle of the city.”

Cox said his family has owned the property since 1939 and he would be “disappointed” if the city tried to obtain the $2.3 million parcel by eminent domain.

“If anybody else had owned it other than me, it would have been gone,” he said. “I’m not keeping it for the money, it’s a foolish investment.”

Other properties include a 72-acre parcel on Highland Avenue owned by the Portland Pipeline Corporation, a 49-acre parcel on Rigby Road owned by Ralph Morton, LLC, the 37-acre Petrlik Farm owned my Pilgrim Road, LLC and the 81-acre Sable Oaks Golf Course.

“In November, residents told us the cost is too much, it was just too high,” Bailey said. “We still have the same needs, and we’re hoping to better inform more people as to what the needs are as we are looking at these preliminary proposals.” 

Bailey said the information concerning the different lots will be presented to the Board of Education and eventually city councilors before any final decisions are made.