Ellsworth is again looking to relocate one of its departments to a building in the Beckwith Hill neighborhood, but there are a few key differences between that proposal and a controversial move by the police department to the same area last year.
The school department is asking the city to spend $1.2 million to buy a former bank operations building on Avery Lane that it would use to house the department’s central office and adult education classes.
The building just came on the market a few weeks ago and would replace office space the department now is leasing, according to Superintendent Amy Boles. The city also would own the building, unlike the new police station at the corner of Buttermilk and High streets, which the city leases from Gurney Investments.
“One of the biggest things that alarmed me was the amount of money in our budget that was going to leases on a consistent basis,” Boles, the city’s top schools administrator since November 2022, told the elected city council. “We were not acquiring equity, nor did it provide us opportunities to change and grow as education changes and grows.”
The school department currently spends about $90,000 a year leasing space in the Camden National Bank building downtown and at The Mill Mall on State Street, Boles said. If the city buys the 9,000 square-foot building on Avery Lane, which currently is owned by Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, it also would move the department’s main IT office there from the elementary-middle school. That would free up space that the K-8 school “desperately” needs, she said.
“One of the biggest issues we have in the school department is space,” she said, adding that constructing a similar building from scratch would cost $3.5 million. “The Avery Lane property has a ton more storage space than we currently have.”
It also has much more parking available than the central office space the department is currently leasing downtown, and it comes fully furnished, she said.
“This property is in hot demand,” Boles told the council. “There are a lot of people that want this because of the excellent condition it’s in.”
Michelle Beal, chair of the city council, emphasized that this opportunity only appeared three weeks ago — since the council last met on Feb. 12. The city would have until May to finalize the purchase of the building, giving it time to get a low-cost loan from the Maine Municipal Bond Bank. The public also would have time to weigh in, including during a public hearing on May 20, she said.
“We are trying to take leases and turn them into equity for the city,” Beal said.
In the fall of 2022, the city was criticized for not airing its plan to move the police station sooner and for not seeking bids from other landlords with comparable buildings for lease. Councilor Steve O’Halloran and competing property owners unsuccessfully appealed the decision in Hancock County Superior Court.
Despite that criticism, most people acknowledged that the police department sorely needed to move out of City Hall, where its offices were cramped and employees had to contend with a lack of storage and drug testing space. Over several years, prior councils had discussed ideas for moving the department but never decided on a plan, even as the agency grew and required more space.