By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Councilors will take some time to inspect the aging St. Dominic Regional High School before agreeing to buy it for $215,000.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said a late Tuesday that the deal with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland gives the city more time to study the 83-year-old brick building.

“We didn’t have to approve the entire sale agreement, just the option,” Bennett said.

Councilors voted to ratify the option to purchase the building at Tuesday’s meeting, saving a final decision on whether to buy the building until later. The city would have engineers and building inspectors come up with cost estimates for renovating or tearing down the building.

“It really gives us the opportunity to flesh some things out and maybe get some answers that people want,” Bennett said. “It keeps things on track, but if it turns out not to be a good decision, we don’t have to execute it.”

The city has been trying to reuse the downtown building since the school moved to Auburn in 2001. City officials hoped to convert the building into affordable housing for the elderly, but those plans fell through last fall.

Bennett said he expects inspection results and structural engineering reports about the building back before city councilors in June or July. He also suggested presenting that information to the Lewiston Planning Board. That board voted against the sale last week, saying it didn’t have enough information to approve it.

The option will cost the city about $19,000 in back property taxes. The city began charging taxes to the building when St. Dom’s moved in January 2001. As part of the option agreement, the city agrees to forgive those taxes if councilors decide against buying the property.

Councilor Norm Rousseau said he didn’t have a problem forgiving those taxes. They began accruing after the building no longer housed a tax-exempt school, but while the archdiocese was working with the city to transform the building.

“These are taxes they accrued because they were working with the city,” Rousseau said. “They wouldn’t be there if they’d just gone ahead and sold the building. I don’t really want to punish them for cooperating with us and working in good faith.”

It was still too much for Thorne Avenue resident John Smotherman.

“I’m not in favor of spending another nickel on another real estate deal while the roads are still in such bad shape,” Smotherman said. “I don’t know why you’re doing it. We have rutted, pitted roads full of potholes. It’s a danger to motorcycles and bicycles. You should be fixing those roads, not spending money on more real estate.”

But members of the Visible Community, a downtown Lewiston community group, urged councilors to buy the building and reuse it for affordable housing.

City Councilor Lillian O’Brien said councilors needed to be sure of what they were buying.

“It’s like looking at buying a car,” O’Brien said. “You find out what you want, then you look at prices and talk to other dealers to see what you’re getting. We’re not ready to purchase it, until we do that.”