LYMAN — A project to the former Cousens School into new town offices in Lyman has been put to a halt, as the Lyman Select Board believes renovations will cost more than budgeted.

The former Cousens School building, located at 382 Goodwins Mills Road, was built in 1937, with an addition built in 1965. The 10,000-square-foot building was last used as a school in 2007 and acquired by the town in 2008.

The building was slated for renovation. It was to house new town offices and community space. The project was approved by voters.

The Cousens School project has gone through three votes in the past few years.

In November 2016, residents approved borrowing about $890,000 and using $250,000 of reserve funds, $1.14 million total, to renovate the former school building. In February 2017, residents at a town meeting voted again to approve this amount, as the earlier vote had been deemed invalid because of missing paperwork.

After an architectural study showed the project couldn’t be completed with $1.14 million, residents voted in November 2017 to approve the project, this time with a $1.8 million price tag.

However, according to Select Board Chairman Jeff Demers, recent information suggests the cost to renovate the former school building would be more than $1.8 million, and the select board voted on May 7 to stop work on the project.

The development team came to the select board recently with news that the cost to redevelop the building would cost about $125,000 to $150,000 more than budgeted as the price of materials had increased, said Demers in a telephone interview on Thursday.

If the project were to go through at the current budgeted amount, he said, necessary items like a generator would have to be cut.

“We weren’t confident we could do a good end project,” Demers said.

The board did a lot of leg work and spent a lot of time on the project, he said. In addition, he said, the town has spent about $130,000 on the project.

“I was not a supporter of the Cousens School project, but I worked hard on it because it was the will of the people,” Demers said.

He felt like he couldn’t ask residents for more money, he said, as the select board was chastised when it increased the budget the last time.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.