NORTH YARMOUTH — The town has planned two public forums to prepare for a June referendum on the reconstruction of Wescustogo Hall and renovation of North Yarmouth Memorial School.

The meetings will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15 and March 15 – both at the former school at 120 Memorial Highway – and conducted by the Wescustogo Building and Design Committee.

Fire destroyed the original Wescustogo Hall on Route 115 in 2013. It served as a Grange hall until it was given to the town in 1996, and became a community center that seated about 150 people and was often rented out for weddings and other private functions. Parking limitations at that site, which neighbors the Village Green, largely led the town to explore an alternate location for the building.

The former Memorial School property on Route 9, which School Administrative District 51 closed and transferred to the town in 2014, was supported by the Select Board in January as the location of a new Wescustogo.

Barrett Made, a Portland-based design and build firm, is working with the town to design a community center composed of a partly demolished – and renovated – school building, and a new Wescustogo connected through a lobby.

The forums are meant “to let people know the progression of the project, because the project should move fairly quickly now,” Town Manager Rosemary Roy said.

The design of the proposed new Wescustogo will be available at the meetings, and cost estimates should be ready by the second forum, Roy said.On the topic of design, discussions have been underway about some sort of imagery adorning the middle of the side of the new Wescustogo that would face Memorial Highway, also known as Route 9, Roy said.

With the potential end of a four-year process in sight, the Select Board on Jan. 16 unanimously approved a design-to-build contract with Barrett Made for $75,000, funds for which come out of the town’s insurance fund for the former Wescustogo.

The forums will also serve as a kickoff for the Wescustogo committee’s fundraising efforts toward the project. For those who missed the original 1949 release of the “Wescustogo Grange No. 27 Cook Book,” or would like a brand new copy, the text has been reprinted as part of that fundraiser. It is available at Town Hall for $20.

Alex Lear can be contacted at 781-3661 ext. 113 or at:

Twitter: @earics

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