LEWISTON — Local church-goers and the city’s Historical Review Commission told city councilors Tuesday they’d lead an effort to save the aging Kennedy Park gazebo.

Councilors said they’d be willing to match efforts, up to $75,000, to preserve the structure if volunteers could generate the rest.

“We spend a lot of money fundraising in this community,” said Councilor Larry Poulin. “I think we can find it within the people in the community to come forward and save the structure.”

The gazebo has been closed since March 2010 due to safety concerns, Deputy City Administrator Phil Nadeau said. The concrete floor of the structure is damaged, the brick supports are eroded and the wooden columns and the wooden structure under the roof are worn.

The distinctively curved tin roof is in pretty good shape, however.

Nadeau outlined three scenarios: restoring the gazebo to its condition circa 1925, repairing it to modern standards or removing it from the site.

Restoration would involve replacing the concrete floor with wood paneling and the iron rails around the stage with wooden banisters. The brick walls around the floor would be replaced with wooden lattice.

Nadeau said the city might also be able to make less expensive repairs if it lowered the structure to ground level.

But councilors said they didn’t like changing the nature of the structure. History is more important.

“People that are age 40, up to 80- and 90-year-old people, this is a piece of history for us,” Councilor Renee Bernier said. “This is a durable piece of history, and it’s something we can save. To destroy it because we don’t have the money… . This is significant to this community; I think we really need to do something with this.”

According to a history of the gazebo written by local historian Douglas Hodgkin, the first bandstand was built in the park in 1868 but the current gazebo was built in 1925.

Since then, it’s been used for concerts and band performances as well as political rallies for local, state and national candidates. It was the site of a November 1960 rally featuring Sen. John F. Kennedy just before he won the presidential election. The park surrounding the gazebo was named Kennedy Park in his honor shortly after his 1963 assassination.

Bill Clifford, chairman of the Historical Preservation Review Board, agreed that the building ought to be restored.

“I think if we are given a certain amount of time to see if we can raise the money to restore this building and bring it back to what it was, I hope this council will go along with that,” Clifford said. “Perhaps we can contact businesses within the town to see if they would donate what they would. The main thing is to restore this building.”

Gemma Osborne, who runs a Christian bookstore in Auburn and helped organize a Christian-themed concert in the park the past two summers, said she’d like to use the gazebo one day.

“I’m willing to go to all the local churches and get their help,” she said. “I will make a slide-show presentation and I will outreach for money.”

City Administrator Ed Barrett suggested councilors vote on a resolution at a future meeting to support the effort and give volunteers until July 2012 to raise the money.

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