By ANGELO J. VERZONI
Staff Writer
BIDDEFORD — The City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 20 to transfer tax-delinquent property to the Biddeford School Department and the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club.
The council’s decision will allow students in the technical school’s building trades program to partner with local businesses to renovate and eventually sell the twostory, 95-year-old house that sits on the roughly 0.2-acre property at 471 Main St., which the city acquired in 2014, according to city records.
In a letter addressed to City Manager Jim Bennett and dated Oct. 15, Jeremy Ray, superintendent of Biddeford schools, urged city officials to support the project. BRCOT and the Rotary Club have partnered together for more than two decades to give students in the program – as well as students in other BRCOT programs, such as electrical engineering – experience building and selling homes, he said.
The renovation project at 471 Main St. is part of the program’s new vision to begin “working on projects that are much more visible within the community,” Ray said.
In an email Sunday, Bennett said the project has many benefits. “The students will work on a real project, a rundown property gets fixed up, a new family will get a nice home, the property goes back on the property tax rolls and the proceeds will support scholarships for Biddeford High School seniors through the Rotary,” he said.
When the project is finished and the house is sold, the school department plans to also use the proceeds to repay the city approximately $11,600 in back taxes and sewer fees owed on the property.
“Being the first time that the COT and Rotary has ever been involved with a renovation, certainly there will be some growth and some areas that we don’t foresee,” Ray told councilors at the Oct. 20 meeting. “But our plan would be, based off the proceeds of the sale, to reimburse the city for taxes and those sewer fees.”
BRCOT Director Paulette Bonneau said in an email this morning that the renovation will give students studying three different fields the opportunity to work together on a project to contribute to the community.
“Our drafting design students are currently working on plans to create a home for modern living,” she said. “In the future, some of our electrical (engineering) students will be involved.”
In an email Sunday, Ray predicted work on the house to begin this year and end sometime next year.
— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.
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