AUBURN — The city could spend a bit more to get a downtown bus station that looks good, according to the new drawings of the proposed building.
The city has released a drawing of the planned Spring Street bus station, with a slanted roof, a central tower and plenty of glass.
Designs for the station came it $646,000 — about $146,000 more than the city had budgeted. They sent the plan back for a less expensive plan that did away with the central tower and an aluminum awning along Spring Street.
But city councilors didn’t like the lesser version. Deschene suggested the city could include the additional $146,000 in the annual capital improvements bond-borrowing package.
“So we are sitting at a $646,000 budget, which the City Council has recommended we pursue,” Deschene said. “This is a high budget number. It will come down from here. I’ve spoken with a local contractor, and he was confident he could come in under that number.”
The city hopes to build the 1,500-foot station on a trapezoid-shaped plot at the southwest corner of Spring and Drummond streets that would be leased from the adjacent Hannaford supermarket.
Deschene was scheduled to meet with officials from Hannaford in Portland Friday to discuss the city’s lease on the land.
The deal would put an end to an 12-year process to build an Auburn companion to Lewiston’s Oak Street bus station. The station would be small, with room for a warm seating area, two public restrooms, a driver break area and possibly space for a small retail operation.
The Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee was given a $250,000 grant from the Federal Transit Agency in 2002 to build a bus station in Auburn. The city will use up to $250,000 in Tax Increment Finance money to help pay for the center in addition to the grant money. That will pay for purchasing the property, building the structure and landscaping.
Original plans put the station alongside a proposed Great Falls Plaza garage in the parking lot near the Auburn Esplanade and Hilton Garden Inn.
That garage was not built, however, and the transit committee moved the hub for Auburn’s bus traffic to Spring Street, near Hannaford.
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- An artist rendering of Auburn’s proposed Spring Street bus station. The building would be located on the northwest corner of Spring and Drummond streets behind Hannaford supermarket.
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- An artist rendering of Auburn’s proposed Spring Street bus station. The building would be located on the northwest corner of Spring and Drummond streets behind Hannaford supermarket.
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