PORTLAND — The board overseeing renovation of the Cumberland County Civic Center will begin trimming the scope of work for the aging arena later this month.

Neal Pratt, who heads the building committee, said the trimming is not unexpected, since an estimate of the cost included some features that were never a priority.

Pratt said the initial estimate for the cost of the renovation was pegged last week at the “mid-30”-million-dollar range by Cianbro, the construction manager for the project. He said the final bill for the construction portion of the project needs to be about $28 million.

Voters last year approved spending up to $33 million for the renovation, but Pratt said about $5 million for that is for “soft costs,” such as professional fees and services, including pay for architects, lawyers, engineers and others.

Pratt said the board will focus on setting priorities for the work and then start trimming based a list of items that are needed.

He said the goal remains to get the work started this summer and complete the project in October 2013.

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