LEWISTON – More than 100 people bobbed their heads in unison on a tour of Bates Mill No. 5 Saturday, the warm-up to a brain-storming session on the future of the nearly century-old mill.

“You can see where the cotton dust is still hanging,” said tour director and urban planner Steve Myers, as dozens of people craned their heads upward to look at the coated steel beams, remnants of the mill’s heyday as the weave shed for Bates Manufacturing.

“Now watch your step,” he added, as the the crowd obediently dropped its collective gaze to the uneven wood floors and continued on.

The tour through the 365,000-square-foot building – bigger than the Auburn Mall – was intended to give the crowd a sense of the historic structure before the Bates Mill No. 5 Task Force tapped them for ideas on what to do with it. But for some, it was already familiar terrain.

“Both my parents worked here,” said Vic Gagnon, as he surveyed the old loom space. “This is L-A. This is what we’re all about.”

Shuttered since 1993, the mill sits at the western gateway to the city, anchoring the view from Auburn. Owned by the city, it has been pitched passively for years as a possible convention center, but financing for the $40 million project was never nailed down.

Facing continued operating losses from maintaining the mill, the city earmarked $3 million for the demolition of No. 5 in its 2009 in its capital budget.

With the clock ticking, a 15-member citizen task force was formed to consider viable re-use of the building, projected costs for those uses and implementation plans.

“One of the core principles is that this should be an economic driver for both cities,” said Mike Carey, co-chair of the task force, which is seeking public input.

Among the mill’s assets: cultural significance as one of the few buildings in New England designed by Albert Kahn, a renowned industrial architect; a saw-tooth roof, which aside from its unique architecture, also allows sunlight and ventilation to the building; reinforced concrete construction that gives it a carrying capacity of 450 pounds per square foot – almost five times the load capacity of a modern parking garage; 95 percent of its environmental remediation work has been completed; it is still structurally sound.

Among its challenges: a complicated relationship between the mill and Florida Power & Light which owns the power station in the basement of the mill and the bordering canals; escalating development costs (a convention center today would cost more in the $60 million range); and sources of money for redevelopment.

Still, dozens of people rolled up their sleeves and began brain storming ideas for the mill in small breakout groups that gathered in the top floor of Mill No. 6 at the tour’s conclusion.

The ideas were as varied as the patterns once woven by Bates’s Jacquard looms: a satellite campus and dormitory space for Bates College or other college; a Faneuil Hall-type retail complex; a farmers’ market; incubator space for manufacturers. And convention center.

“I don’t think we should dismiss the convention center idea,” said one man. “But I do think it will take more than that. We should be looking at mixed uses.”

Members of the task force facilitated each of the break-out groups, keeping notes for a report that will be shared by the whole group. More public input is planned before the task force submits its report to the city council, due Feb 18. Anyone wishing to add their thoughts should send an e-mail to Lincoln Jeffers, the city liaison with the task force at ljeffers@ci.lewiston.me.us

Jonathan Labonte, co-chair of the task force, said he was heartened that no one seemed to be calling for the demolition of Mill No. 5 – that its significance to the city’s history and its potential to enhance L-A’s future was widely accepted.

“There seems to be a lot of energy around making this a significant facility that will draw national attention to L-A,” he said. “Now we have to lay out a road map to get there.”

Gagnon couldn’t agree more.

“I’d support anything as long as it brings life back to the mill,” he said. “There’s so much here … it definitely should not be lost.”

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