LEWISTON – Councilors nearly killed a plan to redevelop St. Dominic Regional High School’s Drouin Building Tuesday night.

Mayor Lionel Guay cast the deciding vote, breaking a 3-3 tie and agreeing to commit $1.11 million in Community Development Block Grant money toward the $11 million project.

Councilor Norm Rousseau, who led colleagues Mark Paradis and Ron Jean in an effort to pull city support from the project, said it was too expensive for what the city is getting.

“We have to get the best return we can on all taxpayer dollars,” Rousseau said. “This doesn’t do it. Is it a worthy project? Yes. Is it the best way to spend that money? No.”

Plans call for combining public space with housing for the elderly, said James Dowling, the executive director of the Lewiston Housing Authority.

The housing authority hopes to put the Lewiston Regional Technical College’s Culinary Arts School and the Sandcastle Preschool program on the bottom floor of the old school. Classrooms on the remaining two floors would be converted into 37 single-bedroom units for elders, with rents of about $438 a month. The school’s auditorium would be preserved and used for community gatherings.

It would be ready for use in 2006, Dowling said.

The residential development would cost about $7.3 million and the first floor development would cost about $4.4 million. It would be paid for with a variety of state and federal grants and loans, Dowling said. The authority has lined up more than $6 million in state and federal low-income tax credits, $717,000 in loans and is hoping to get another $2 million from the federal government in 2005.

Councilors agreed to set aside the block grant money last year, while the housing authority pulled the project together. Rousseau said he supported the project then, before the numbers were firm.

“But I can’t, not after seeing what it will cost,” he said Tuesday night.

Tax returns

The city has better ways to spend $1.11 in block grant money, such as small business loans or other developments, he said, adding that the city owes it to taxpayers to get the biggest return on its investment.

“We don’t have the money to do every project,” Rousseau said. “At some point, we have to say no when it doesn’t make sense.”

Councilor Renee Bernier argued that the project does make sense for Lewiston taxpayers. None of the cost would come from property taxes. Besides, she said, the building is beginning to fall apart. Without the renovation, the city would probably end up taking it over and demolishing it. The building has been empty since December 2001, when the school moved to a bigger, more modern facility in Auburn. It is currently owned by the Catholic archdiocese.

“I’m afraid we’ll end up with this being another Bates Mill,” Bernier said. “If it continues deteriorating like it is for another winter, it would end up being the city’s responsibility. And that would cost the taxpayers.”

Councilors Lillian O’Brien and Robert Connors agreed. With Councilor Stavros Mendros on vacation, it fell to Guay to break the tie. Guay voted in favor of the project.