Lewiston High School has stood since 1973. The city never got state permits.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Lewiston city officials are scrambling to get licenses for Lewiston High School, the Multi-Purpose Center and other sites after discovering the city never got Maine Department of Environmental Protection permits when the projects were built.

Some sites have been without a permit for more than 25 years.

“At some point it fell off everybody’s radar,” said Judy Gates, licensing coordinator for Maine DEP’s Bureau of Land and Water Quality.

In 1970, a new state law required that all “significant” developments get permits from the Maine DEP to ensure the sites met water quality and other environmental standards. Those permits were supposed to be obtained before a project could be started.

According to the Maine DEP, Lewiston never got such permits when it built Lewiston High School or the Multi-Purpose Center in 1973. It never got permits when it built its tennis courts in 1975 or its high school parking lots in the 1980s.

The school system and DEP discovered the error in 1994 when the school system was getting ready to develop Franklin Pasture. Lewiston applied for “after the fact” permits. Officials later asked for – and were granted – extensions.

But by the time the extensions had run out, the DEP’s project manager and Lewiston officials had moved to other jobs.

“We think that’s what happened,” said Gates. “The people who were tracking it weren’t tracking it anymore.”

The issue didn’t resurface until last winter when a Lewiston Regional Technical Center teacher asked the DEP what he would need to do to build an amphitheater at Lewiston High School, said Lewiston School System Maintenance Director William MacKenzie. When DEP officials opened the high school’s file, they discovered that it never received a license.

“They said you can’t do anything until that’s done,” MacKenzie said.

The old permit problems are holding up at least one community project: a walking/biking trail that is supposed to run from the high school, through Franklin Pasture and down to Lisbon Street. The Maine DEP has refused to issue a license for the trail until the school system had received “after the fact” permits for the rest of the area.

L/A Trails, a 2-year-old community advocacy group, has been anxiously awaiting the trail, which will be largely funded through a grant. Members believe the Franklin Pasture Trail could be the first in a long system of valuable trails for Lewiston.

Construction should have been started last spring, said Alan Hahnel, vice president of L/A Trails. The group recently learned that the trail has been designed, but Lewiston can’t get a construction permit because of the DEP problems.

“We’ve been fairly disappointed,” Hahnel said.

The group has considered writing to school or city officials about the permits and the need for the trail. But members hope that the situation will be resolved quickly and without such interference.

“We really don’t want to go as an aggressive advocate,” Hahnel said.

The school department plans to submit a new DEP application in the coming weeks.

DEP officials say the entire thing should be cleared up once the school system proves that the high school and surrounding sites meet environmental standards. It could take up to six months for “after the fact” permits to be issued.

“Now that we’re all reminded about it,” Gates said.

ltice@sunjournal.com

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