LEWISTON — A plan to take over and preserve the city’s canals is too important to rush, Councilor Renee Bernier said.

Councilors heard an update on negotiations with Next Era Energy, formerly Florida Power and Light, for the canals. The utility owns the canals but must continue to keep water in them because the city maintains a single power-generating turbine along the canal.

That turbine is aging, does not provide enough electricity to pay for itself and requires at least $400,000 worth of repairs, said Lincoln Jeffers, assistant to the city administrator. If it fails, the utility could easily turn off the canal’s water supply once and for all.

“The goal we’ve been working toward is keeping water in the canals and to make better use of an under used asset to the city,” Jeffers told councilors at a workshop meeting Tuesday night.

Jeffers said staff was considering asking councilors to approve a letter of agreement at their June 7 meeting. But that won’t happen yet.

“This is significant to this community,” Bernier said. “I just want to make sure that everybody can benefit by it. I don’t want people sitting here, on this council down the road, worrying about a decision we made. I want to make sure the decisions are made right the first time.”

The canals were dug in the mid-1800s and have been a feature of the downtown ever since. The 4,400-foot-long main canal runs from just above the Great Falls, through the downtown along Canal Street to Gully Brook, where it empties back into the Androscoggin River.

The Cross Canal cuts off from the main canal at about Ash Street, running to the river. The lower canal cuts off from the Cross Canal at about Oxford Street, running parallel to the main canal before turning back to the river at about Chestnut Street. The canal itself is old and leaky and needs $750,000 worth of repairs, Jeffers said. 

The city has been negotiating a takeover of the canals from the utility for two years, Jeffers said.

Under the current plan, Lewiston would close the generator and surrender its federal license to generate electricity. The utility would transfer canal ownership to the city and would guarantee to keep water flowing at 70 cubic feet per second.

Next Era plans $14.8 million in improvements to its other power generation facilities along the river. The city would create two tax-increment financing districts. The first, on property taxes paid on an $8.6 million investment for new turbines at the Gulf Island power facility, would be used to pay for repairs to the canal.

A second TIF district would rebate 60 percent of the property taxes on $6.2 million for new rubber dams at the Lewiston sections of the Monty Hydro facility and the Deer Rips Dam.

But Jonathan LaBonte, executive director for the Androscoggin Land Trust, said the city might not need to negotiate a TIF deal with the utility to preserve the canals. Federal licenses to generate electricity might require the utility to work with the city and preserve recreational and other uses.

“You are in the driver’s seat now,” LaBonte said. “You have something that Next Era wants, but you also have something in a federal process to initiate those discussions.”

Bernier said she supports the idea, but wants to make sure all of those questions are answered.

“I just think we need to get anybody that knows anything about the water rights at the table so everything gets spelled out and we don’t have questions,” Bernier said.

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