Councilors will take up the issue again on Nov. 25 and will open the discussion to the public.

LEWISTON – Councilors promised a thorough review of an exit strategy intended to get the city out of the Bates Mill Wednesday night.

City Administrator Jim Bennett presented his plan to reduce city spending at the mill by $31.7 million over the next seven years to city councilors and a dozen other people Wednesday night at a special workshop meeting.

He also released drafts of the proposed agreement between the city and Bates Mill LLC – developer Tom Platz and his partners.

“This is not another amendment to the original agreement,” Bennett said. “This is a completely new agreement.”

Councilors will take up the issue again at their Nov. 25 meeting, and open the discussion to the public.

Councilors are expected to make a decision on Bennett’s proposal in December. Councilor Norm Rousseau said he wanted to make sure it gets a full review by the public as well as councilors.

“We have had several agreements over the years, and I’d like to make sure this is the last one,” Rousseau said. “I’ve just come into possession of these documents, and I have a lot of reading to do. These documents contain layers and layers of questions.”

The agreement would give Platz control of most of the remaining mill buildings. The city would keep buildings Nos. 5 and 9, according to the agreement.

Platz would not pay for the remaining buildings. The city would continue to pay annual support, would still pay for some environmental clean up and exterior renovations and would need to provide parking for the project.

But the move would also cut the city’s investments at the mill nearly in half, from an estimated $59.2 million over the next seven years to $27.5 million. It does that by limiting the number of parking spaces and the amount of environmental cleanup the city has to provide. The deal also gets the city off the hook for interior renovations at the remaining mill buildings.

The contract requires Platz to invest a minimum of $5.3 million over the next three years. That’s simply a guarantee, Bennett said. He expects Platz and his partners to invest more than $40 million over the next seven years.

“The fact is that after seven years, the city’s support ends whether he’s finished or not,” Bennett said. “We estimate that he needs to invest at least that much in the mill in order to make it profitable.”

A fully developed mill should create more than 2,400 jobs, Bennett said.

Public reaction was generally positive. Charles Soule, a mayoral candidate in the last election, flashed a sign asking “Exit or Fleecing?” during the meeting. Soule said he felt the public was not represented in the discussions.

But Lewiston resident Mike Blais, owner of Blais Flowers and Garden Center, said the deal made sense.

“It’s time to move on,” he said. “I still think developing the mill is the best thing to do; this seems like a good way to do it.”

Resident Bob Stone agreed, but said he wanted more time to read the agreement.

“What I don’t see reflected here is the impact that these jobs would have on downtown Lewiston,” Stone said. “And that many jobs would have a very big economic impact.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.