LEWISTON — The remaining piece of land needed for the city’s new elementary school project could soon be acquired.

With City Council approval Tuesday, the School Department will move ahead with plans to buy property on Bartlett Street for $345,000 that will be designated for recreational use. 

The additional land is a required step in the process toward construction of the $49.7 million school, which is slated for a June groundbreaking. 

The school was approved by voters in June 2016  and will be built on the high school football field. Just before the vote, officials found that the proposed site was originally funded by a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, which requires the land to remain recreational space.

Although the School Department received federal approval to build on the field, it was required to identify properties of equal or greater market value to substitute for the converted property.

The discovery surprised school officials at the time, briefly putting the project’s timeline into question. 

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said last year that under the 1978 grant, the city was to file annual reports about how the land was used to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, but never did, and the state never followed up. 

Since last year, a portion of the requirement has been met by the School Department’s acquisition of Drouin Field, but additional land was still required.

City Administrator Ed Barrett said Wednesday that the amount of land in question is in the 6-acre range, but the required property is based on assessed market value, not acreage. He said the land at 280 Bartlett St. is being assessed. 

The School Department has an option to buy the property for $345,000 until Jan. 31. Barrett said the necessary environmental assessments will be completed by that date.

In his memo to the council, Barrett described the Bartlett Street property as an “out-parcel surrounded by other city-owned Franklin Pasture property.”

He said the land is suitable for redevelopment for open space and recreation purposes. It’s currently the site of a bus transportation service, which leases space to a company that contracts with the School Department.

Barrett said the company is in the process of building a new facility and relocating, and the land would be used for a soccer field or other athletic field.

Tom Shannon, the Building Committee chairman for the new school, said Wednesday that the land won’t necessarily end up an “athletic complex.” He said it could also be used for more passive recreation such as cross-country skiing trails. 

The costs to convert the area into an athletic field have not been estimated, but could be significant, he said. Shannon said the bus depot part of the land could be used for a parking lot, with the recreational use taking shape in the fields behind it. 

Shannon called the council decision “another example of the continuing cooperation between the city and School Department.”

If the land acquisition hits a snag before Jan. 31, Barrett said, it won’t affect the timeline of the elementary school project. He said the School Department has permission from the National Parks Service to build on the high school field, subject to replacing the recreational land within a year, giving the city until August to acquire the necessary land. 

The council Tuesday also unanimously approved the funding sources for the purchase. 

Funding would be provided from the project balance of the completed Gendron Business Park Phase II, at $98,200, and interest and premium received on Lewiston’s most recent bond issue, $246,800.