LEWISTON – Reviewing a study of the city’s strengths and weaknesses was more important for councilors Tuesday than rehashing last week’s angry politics.

Councilors heard a two-hour review by nine different staffers of the new City Strategic Plan, released to councilors and the public Friday.

It promises to be a different kind of study, City Administrator Jim Bennett said.

“We’ve had studies before, but for the first time, everything is collected in one place,” he said. “All of the policy statements, all of the studies and all of the directions are here.”

The 39-page plan details the city’s strengths and weaknesses, identifies some challenges citizens and city officials will have to deal with, and some unique opportunities.

It identifies goals in seven areas: innovative service delivery, neighborhood identity, safety, riverfront development, economic growth, sustainability, and civic engagement and collaboration.

“It’s not something that everyone will take and say that every part is the greatest thing in the world,” Bennett said. “But it’s something we can start with.”

The plan is available online at the city’s Web site, www.ci.lewiston.me.us/administration/strategicplanning/index.htm.

Now councilors will begin reviewing the draft and deciding their next steps. But Councilor Denis Theriault says he’s ready. It’s time to make a decision the Bates Mill No. 5 building, he said. The future of the building is scheduled to be a topic.

“Do we need to keep it? Can it conform to the things we want?” Theriault said. “These are the things we need to decide.”

The strategic plan calls for the creation of a Riverfront Island Masterplan, that would help determine the fate of the massive building. It’s the last part of the original Bates Mill Complex still owned by the city, and has been rumored as the spot for a convention center for more than a decade.

But Theriault said he doesn’t think the building is in good enough shape to develop. He argued for tearing it down, and presenting developers with an open lot to develop.

“We might have had a chance to get Cabella’s in that spot, with the canals on one side and the river right there,” he said. “But they wouldn’t have been able to do it with that building.”

Councilors said the building will be the main topic of their April 7 meeting.

Other parts of the strategic plan call for more efficient use government – including selling some city services to other municipalities and possibly buying other services from them – better transportation, increased tourism and a better municipal image.

Resident Bruce Damon, of 22 Buttonwood Lane, suggested Lewiston should market itself as the gateway to Maine’s mountains.

“This study focuses on the river, but that’s only a part of what this town is,” Damon said. “We are the gateway to the mountains, and we just need to realize it.”

Ari Rosenberg, of 75 Maple St., pointed out that Lewiston’s Somali residents were not included in the study. Rick Speer, chairman of the strategic plan’s steering group, said one meeting was scheduled for Lewiston’s Somali residents but nobody attended. A second meeting was not scheduled. And Dot Treadwell, of the Visible Community, called for a creation of a community center downtown.

Moving on

Councilor Robert Reed opened the special City Council workshop with a five-minute statement critical of fellow councilors for secret meetings and for leaving a meeting early last week in protest.

But Mayor Larry Gilbert shut him down.

“It’s high time we end this,” Gilbert said. “We are here to do council business and I insist we do that.”

With that councilors moved on.