Abraham Lincoln’s famous phrase, “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” has been cleverly applied to many other ideas, entities and movements. We’ll add another to the list: the Cumberland County Civic Center, which has just reopened after a major renovation.

The civic center is an operation paid for by the people of Cumberland County, and its main purpose is for the enjoyment of the people of the county.

The center, located in downtown Portland since 1977 and managed by a board of trustees, has received a much-needed and much-publicized aesthetic improvement. Its new exterior has been fashioned from similar brick and glass as surrounding Portland structures. Its interior has been completely remodeled with new seats, luxury boxes, bathrooms and concessions. Anyone who attended a hockey game, a trade show or a graduation ceremony in the former center knows it badly needed a makeover.

After more than a year of renovations, costing about $36 million at last count, events are now taking place. A home show occurred last weekend to mark the debut. High school basketball playoff games began Wednesday night and will run until early March. The grand reopening is something to celebrate, and we urge the people who paid for it to take pride in their center and check it out.

While leaders tend to get the credit for such massive projects, it’s the taxpayers who toil to earn the money that actually makes such public projects happen. Despite them covering the tab, taxpayers don’t tend to take pride in their contributions very often. But the civic center, as its Latin derivation implies, is for the people of Cumberland County. The people, therefore, should become a part of it, especially if they haven’t in the past. Attendance will drive future success.

Despite its location in the middle of Maine’s biggest city, the center hasn’t always drawn the biggest crowds. People complain about the architectural style, the dangerous flight of stairs on the grand Free Street entrance, a perceived lack of parking and how it should be renamed the Portland Civic Center since it’s tucked far from the geographical center of the county. But with the renovation, which addressed the design issues, now’s the time to reverse that thinking, and for people from all over the county, even far-off Bridgton, to attend events at their center. And with an estimated 160 events a year, there are plenty of chances.

The center has also gotten a fair bit of bad press as of late, with a tense negotiation with Time Warner Cable about broadcasting high school playoff games and the Portland Pirates packing up and leaving for Lewiston. Those bleak situations have corrected themselves, with the prodigal Pirates signing a lease for the next five years, and Time Warner agreeing to show the high school tourneys for the next three years. As these two entities have seen the light, those who pooh-poohed the civic center should give it a second look, as well.

Another bit of recent news that will also help build buzz for the reinvigorated civic center is the decision by the nonprofit Libra Foundation (which operates Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, among many other enterprises) to sponsor a luxury box. The Cumberland County Corner, as the box will be called, will be managed by the civic center staff, and will allow charities and community groups of all kinds to use it. At $75,000 a year, the Libra Foundation is generous to be offering the space, and, no doubt, many county charities will enjoy the use of it.

There are a lot of good things happening with the civic center, and while putting a costly renovation project on the 2011 ballot was questionable in what was a still-recovering economy, now’s the time for county taxpayers to follow the Libra Foundation’s lead and embrace and take pride in their center.

–John Balentine, managing editor