BETHEL — A resident offered to do an in-depth inspection of the former Ethel Bisbee School for $1, if a preliminary look inside the building reveals it’s worth the time, Town Manager Christine Landes said Monday.
Landes said Bo Boden, who owns and operates Accu-Pro Inspections, offered to do the inspection to make a list of its positive and negative attributes, and to provide estimates on how much it would cost to fix.
“The selectmen voted to have him do a preliminary look inside the school, and if he decides that it’s worth looking into further, he’ll do an official inspection of the building and only charge the town $1,” Landes said.
At the annual town meeting in June, residents voted against a $1,500 engineering study to determine whether the building at the end of Philbrick Street is structurally sound.
The school, built in 1925 and expanded in 1947, was given to the town by School Administrative District 44 in 2014.
In December 2015, Christi Mitchell of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission toured the building with town officials and recommended that the town fix it and use it.
She said the building would be eligible for consideration by the National Register of Historic Places.
Some residents at the town meeting said it would be a waste of money to do an engineering study on an old building when they could raze it, sell the land and put the property back on the tax roll.
However, others lamented the idea of the town tearing down one of Bethel’s historical buildings.
In other business, Landes said Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Warden will begin enforcing a section of the sign ordinance that allows banners to be used as temporary signs for special events and business promotions.
Landes said Warden was instructed to hold off on enforcing the section of the sign ordinance related to banners until residents could vote on new amendments to the sign ordinance at the town meeting in June.
After the amendments were approved, Landes said the Board of Selectmen gave Warden the go-ahead to begin enforcing the ordinance.
“Now that we have a lenient description on banners, they said it was OK for him to move forward with addressing the violations,” she added.
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