LEWISTON – The City Council agreed Tuesday night that it is time to knock down Bates Mill No. 5, the massive building at the corner of Main and Lincoln streets.

“We have spent thousands of dollars in minimal roof and structural repairs and over $200,000 per year to heat a structure with very little monetary return,” said Councilor Denis Theriault. “Yet we continue to play this endless game of not making a decision.”

That ended Tuesday.

Theriault and fellow councilors voted to begin taking proposals to demolish the building. Everything is on the table, Theriault said. He’s even willing to consider hiring an explosives expert to implode the building.

“We know that it was built to survive everything, except maybe the ravages of time and water,” Theriault said. “It’s still sturdy enough that we know it’s going to take some doing. Just bringing in a bulldozer will not do it.”

City Administrator Jim Bennett said he needed about 60 days to set up the proposal process and another 60 days to take bids.

Finance Director Dick Metivier said demolishing the building could cost as much as $3 million. When heating and maintenance costs are figured in, the city could save an estimated $51,000 per year by demolishing the building.

The sawtooth-roofed building is the last of the original Bates Mill complex still owned by the city.

A task force recommended last summer that the city use the space for a convention center. The City Council asked for development bids for the building, but it didn’t get any takers.

“No one showed up with their checkbook,” Theriault said.

He said an empty lot will be much more developable.

“It’s clear to me that the land under that building is much more valuable than the building itself,” he said.

Theriault also called for the remains of the building to be pulverized and used to fill the city’s old quarry on River Road or to partially back-fill the downtown canals.

Councilors agreed that it was time to move.

“It’s the right time for this,” Councilor Tom Peters said. “We were not wrong to take our time. We needed to check and see if it was possible to redevelop the building. But nothing was qualified to fill it, so it’s time to be done with it – and not because it’s butt-ugly or because it’s an architectural masterpiece.”