Photo gallery: Administration building down, slab’s removal in progress

Visitors to Harpswell’s George J. Mitchell Field will see a different landscape this year. On the waterfront at the town park, the administration building is down, and the remnants of the building will soon follow.

A contractor for the town, Cumberland’s Lakeside Concrete Cutting, knocked down the building in December. It is now breaking up the concrete slab and footings.

Harpswell residents voted to demolish the long-vacant structure, also known as Building 126, in June. The U.S. Navy built it in the 1950s as part of a fuel depot to support Cold War military operations.

After a competitive bidding process, the town hired Lakeside for $144,100. The Select Board later decided to remove the slab for an additional $40,000, still within the project’s $230,000 budget.

The site of the administration building at Mitchell Field in Harpswell is empty, except for construction equipment and debris, on Thursday, Jan. 15. Middle Bay and the Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. oyster hatchery are visible in the background. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)

Only concrete and wood footings remain of the administration building at Mitchell Field on Thursday, Jan. 15. Lakeside Concrete Cutting had broken up the building’s concrete slab and planned to remove the footings next, according to the contractor. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)

An excavator sits idle next to piles of concrete and dirt at Mitchell Field on Thursday, Jan. 15. The building’s footprint will be converted to grass, but its parking lot will remain, a town official said. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)