PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) – The University of Maine at Fort Kent campus looks a little different for returning students.
Over the summer, UMFK underwent various exterior improvement projects.
Those projects included implementing a new enrollment building, veterans square/parking lot, generator, roof improvement, new diagonal walkways and soon some artwork.
“The UMFK master plan of 2017 outlined several needs for the campus, including building this building the enrollment and advancement center as a front-facing presence on Pleasant street. In addition to opening up views and clearing space to unite the two sides of campus, and creating more parking. In doing the things we created the need to relocate displaced flag displays. Over the course of a multi year plan those needs intersected with the funding from State of Maine Bond Funding as well as University of Maine System Space Reduction Initiative funding to make these projects possible,” said Pam Ashby, Chief Business Officer.
Ashby says this funding was vital, as the State of Maine Bond Funding alone was for $2.9 million, paying for the new enrollment and advancement building as well as some art work for the campus.
“This project itself was roughly $180,000. The infrastructure project was on the order of $300,000. The roof projects ran about $150,000. One of the most visible is exactly where we’re at. We built this, it’s about an half an acre lot here. The main focus of it is, we refer to it as UMFK’s veteran square. So while it might look like a parking lot we’ve purposely designed a ceremonial space at the flagpole so that we can have local groups use it as they might,” said Jason Guerrette, director of facilities management.
Local groups like the American Legion. The college also serves as an emergency shelter for Northern Maine.
“That included an 80 kilowatt generator to our dining facility. We are Northern Aroostook’s Red Cross shelter. Our gymnasium serves as a shelter but if we lost power we’d have no real way to be able to feed people. So if there was an extended outage that was widespread how do we get to feed people besides just the folks that live on campus. So we managed to get a 80 kilowatt standby generator that will allow us to stay open 24/7 in case of an emergency. We’ve also done several infrastructure projects like roofs at several of our buildings that needed an upgrade,” said Guerrette.
While many changes have taken place, there are plans for further improvements to the campus already in the works.
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