LEWISTON — The effort to demolish abandoned apartments in the downtown will get a $65,000 boost in the next year, councilors decided Tuesday.

They approved a 2012-13 municipal bond package that calls for $2.9 million in capital spending for city roads, vehicles and equipment, $9 million for schools and $6.3 million for water, sewer and storm-water utilities.

The city had planned to spend $150,000 of the bond proceeds to purchase and demolish abandoned buildings, but the council decided Tuesday to increase that to $215,000.

“We recognize that given the housing market and the number of properties that have have been foreclosed or are waiting for foreclosure, it’s a growing issue,” City Administrator Ed Barrett said. “They felt it was something they want to keep up with.”

The city has set aside $250,000 in the current fiscal year budget to condemn and demolish buildings. In addition to the bond money targeting the work, they have another $96,000 set aside in Community Development Block Grants for demolitions.

Barrett said the $65,000 came from reducing the budget for the comprehensive plan from $150,000 to $100,000, and reducing the budget for Lewiston Memorial Armory renovations from $75,000 to $60,000.

“For the armory, we just have better estimates for what the work will cost,” Barrett said. “We determined that $100,000 would be sufficient to do the comp plan but not to implement some of the rule changes. But that’s something we can take up in another year.”

The capital plan also calls for $1.1 million in road paving and $607,000 in road rehabilitation projects, work at the Lewiston Public Library and updated maps for the city’s Geographic Information System.

Other spending includes significant work on Lewiston schools: a $5.5 million expansion at McMahon Elementary School in 2014; building a new, $17 million elementary school in 2017; and three phases of expansion at Lewiston Middle School.

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