LEWISTON – Emotion will play as big a role in the future of the Bates Mill No. 5 as common sense, according to a former building engineer.

“It’s a money decision, but that’s not what it’s going to come down to,” said William B. Lewis, former chief engineer at Bates Manufacturing. “Some people are practical and others tend to be sentimental. How people are, that’s what’s going to decide this.”

Without a doubt, Lewis said he’s on the practical, common-sense side. He’s advocating for tearing the building down. It’s an idea he offered in a letter to the editor last month and one he discussed with the Bates Mill No. 5 task force Thursday.

According to Lewis, the circa 1912 building was never built to last, and years of vibration from looms have caused stress and other deterioration. Years of neglect will make it expensive to fix.

But he admits its size will make it expensive to tear down.

“Realistically, any building can be torn down, if you want to spend enough money,” he said. “At the same time, any building can be renovated if you want to pay for it. You can reinforce anything you want if you spend enough. So that’s what it comes down to – how you decide if you want to spend the money to do one or the other.”

Task force Chairman Michael Carey said it’s a decision that will be up the Lewiston City Council later this spring. His group plans to present a report looking at four options – demolishing the building, using it as a convention center, as a parking garage or turning it over to the private sector.

“We haven’t been asked to pick a favorite,” he said. “We’re just looking at the best possible uses, and the costs and benefits associated. It’s going to be up to (councilors) to decide.”

The task force has been meeting since May studying possible uses for the massive, saw-toothed building at Main and Lincoln streets. Appointees include Lewiston and Auburn residents, business leaders, elected officials from Auburn and Androscoggin County, as well as developers.

The building is the last part of the Bates Mill Enterprise Complex that the city still owns. The site has been considered for a convention center for years, but nothing has happened. The city continues to spend $400,000 annually in maintenance costs, according to city officials.

The city set aside $3 million in the 2009 capital improvements plan to pay for demolition of the building.

Carey said the group is taking both common sense and emotion into account. They recently received a bevy of reports on the building – from an updated convention center market study to construction and destruction cost estimates as well as a master plan-scale look at the site.

“We wanted a professional estimate to see if we’d missed anything really obvious,” he said. They need to go over those studies before they’ll be ready to make their final report.

“The bottom line will be about dollars and cents, but there’s also a sense of what the community could lose,” Carey said. “If the community chooses to demolish it, we’ll lose this very historic building. But that has to be the choice.”