LEWISTON – Normand Rousseau will step down as head of the Colisee’s public managing group, making way for Mayor Larry Gilbert to work on privatizing the ice arena.

“I don’t want to be a hindrance,” Rousseau said Tuesday. “It’s a friendly thing. He’s talked a lot about getting it into private hands, so I hope the board will elect him the new chair and he can pursue that goal.”

Rousseau has led the Lewiston Urban Civic Center Enterprises, LLC, since it formed in 2004. That was when the city purchased the ice rink and arena to help keep the Lewiston Maineiacs semi-professional hockey team in town.

Councilors agreed then to assume $4.7 million in debt to take over the civic center and created the nine-member board to control it. LUCCE directors hired Global Spectrum to manage the Colisee in 2005.

Gilbert made private control of the Colisee a staple of his mayoral campaign in January and Rousseau said he’s simply clearing the way.

“I am pretty sure he can do it,” Rousseau said. “I’m just trying to give him every opportunity I can to help him fulfill his promises.”

Gilbert defeated Rousseau and two other candidates at the polls last month to claim the mayor’s job. Voters elected him to fill in for Lionel Guay, who stepped down in November.

His term is a short one. Gilbert, along with every member of the City Council, faces another election again in November.