It seems some folks around Maine want to know what’s going on behind the cheerful Robins-egg blue walls at 75 Maple St.

The resident-owners of the building will make a special presentation in February to the Changing Maine Conference in Augusta, recounting their experiences as Lewiston’s first housing cooperative.

“It’s definitely a model that people are interested in because it’s something that really does work,” said Ari Rosenberg, a member of the Faire Op Bande a Part.

Rosenberg and five others pooled their resources last winter to purchase the three-story, three-unit building at the end of Bates Street on Maple. Each unit pays $625 in rent a month to the cooperative, but they also own shares of the building and the cooperative. And, as owners, they have a say in the building’s fate: how it’s maintained and how much rent they pay.

The group splits up chores as well as bills, and Rosenberg said they’ve all had turns shoveling snow this winter. Now the group is planning to start replacing the building’s old drafty windows with more efficient ones.

Rosenberg said the group will be working with members from a Bath-based housing collective and the state housing authority to create some policies that will encourage more cooperatives.

“Right now, there really is no policy, so you have to jump through so many hoops to get something like this started,” Rosenberg said. “So we’re trying to help create something fair that will help everyone.”

– Scott Taylor