LEWISTON — Councilors need to decide Tuesday if they want to pay to keep the spires of the Franco-American Heritage Center lit.

Volunteers raised money to have lights and poles installed to illuminate the buildings spires last year.

The lights were powered from a city-owned light circuit and the Franco Center paid the city an estimated $1,102 per year for electricity.

But Central Maine Power Co. objected this summer, saying the city was reselling CMP’s electricity. The city has stopped collecting money from the Franco Center pending a City Council decision.

“We’re hoping they can help us, because it won’t cost a lot,” said Rita Dube, the Franco Center’s executive director. “I think we’ve become an important sight for this part of town, and I hope we can find a way to continue lighting them.”

Councilors are scheduled to discuss and vote on the Franco Center lights at their 7 p.m. regular meeting Tuesday in City Hall.

Most of the lights remain lit, Dube said. A series of lights illuminating the southern section were attached to CMP poles and the company asked to have those removed, she said. Those lights came down in October.

“But we’ll be able to put new poles up and lights up as soon as we get this other issue figured out,” she said.

The stone Gothic Roman Catholic church was built early last century and completed in 1927. At the time, the church boasted a congregation of more than 4,000, many of them Franco-American residents of Lewiston’s Little Canada neighborhood.

The church fell on hard times in the 1960s as parishioners moved away. The Roman Catholic Diocese closed the church in 2000. It was sold to local Franco-Americans and renovated and renamed the Franco-American Heritage Center.

Volunteers raised $18,000 to pay for and install the lights to illuminate the building and its spires. It was meant to match lights illuminating the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul a few miles away.

“When we turned the lights on, we were sure that we had all of the documentation we needed to do what we were doing,” said Ed Plourde, project manager for L-A Landmarks Lighting effort. “But there was some confusion, and we couldn’t find the documentation we thought we had. It’s a real shame, too, because I think this has done good things for the community.”

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