A reminder that residents in Chester, Lincoln, and Mattawamkeag have the opportunity to vote today, April 7th, at their local polling place. This vote will determine if the district will move forward with the revolving renovation loan to build a vestibule at MA. A basic summary of the project background is below.
In the 2025-26 school year, a capital project allocated $250,000 to create a vestibule at MA. Through the bidding process, bids ranged from $350,000 to $540,000. The project was put on hold, the money was not spent, and the district looked at other funding options. The RSU 67 Facilities Director submitted an application for a School Revolving Renovation loan. This is a competitive loan process that allows schools to apply for funding for projects up to $2,000,000 from the State of Maine that have to meet very strict criteria. Our application was specific to security and ADA compliance. On January 30, 2026, the district received notification that its application for a School Revolving Renovation fund for the MA vestibule had been approved to move forward. Of all the applications received, we scored 9th on the list for projects. We are approved for $471,200. Of this amount, 63.29% ($298,222) will be forgiven. The remaining 36.71% ($172,978) would be paid back over five years at 0% interest. This would be approximately $35,000 over the next five years. This amount is less than we had originally planned when we requested the initial capital reserve project funds. The structure of the grant requires us to do the 5-year payment plan at 0%.