BY VALERIE TUCKER

Correspondent

Patty Jacobs decided the opening of the new Fairbanks community center was like having a baby that took nine years instead of nine months to deliver.

After the Thursday afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house for the donors and general public, she looked around the new building and smiled.

"There has been so much community support for this effort, and this is wonderful to see," she said.

After the original 1898 neighborhood school north of Farmington on Route 4 closed, it was occupied by local computer components businesses and burned flat in 1999. In 2000, supporters formed a non-profit association, with an ambitious plan to rebuild the structure for community use.

Fairbanks Neighborhood Association President Cindy Kemble and her mother, Lena Barker, filled plates of appetizers from the new kitchen for the crowd that gathered to join the festivities. They recalled the original gathering of friends and neighbors who decided to raise money to rebuild the two-room schoolhouse that had housed nine grades.

"I graduated from the eighth grade here in 1942," Barker said. "I grew up and went to school with Doris Gay, who got this whole thing started."

Gay had written a letter to a local newspaper asking that the site be considered as a place for a community center instead of being sold by the town for a commercial venture.

"Doris has been our inspiration," the Rev. Scott Planting said. "This whole project says that the community can pull together and take care of each other."

After several years of fundraising efforts and the receipt of matching federal grant monies, Taylor-Made Construction of Wilton began the rebuilding process in 2007. The original 1898 facade had a brick foundation about 50 feet long and 4 feet high, so the Association raised money to recreate that front wall by selling bricks, Kemble explained

"We raised $107,000 through our capital campaign alone, and we've received grants and donations, and we're debt free," she said.

The next project will be fundraising for a shared-use kitchen in the basement of the building. Kemble expects groups and collectives will use kitchen space to teach and learn about canning, freezing, and other ways of preserving food. Part of the basement is occupied by the Care and Share food closet and the Western Maine Food Distribution Center, which handles the food for local food banks.

"Construction stayed on schedule, and we have leased half of the upstairs space to the LEAP (Life Enrichment Advancing People, Inc.)," Kemble said. "We have already rented the space upstairs to a church convention, and we can provide space for all kinds of activates."

For more information or to make a donation, call Jacobs at 778-4272 or Dory Dickman at 778-0517.