The whole point of touring the former textile mills in Biddeford’s downtown is to get a feel for what it was like to work there, from the early days of textile production in the 1800s until the Vellux blanket manufacturing closure in 2009. The dirty floors, low clearance stairways, minimal lighting and exposed brick are all part of the experience, allowing visitors to really envision themselves toiling away while the big machines were running.

Bringing these areas “up to code” by the city’s standards, as the codes enforcement office is now advising, would compromise that experience. Take the renowned lagoon area, for example. This is a popular stop on the mill tours and was also a highlight of the Heart of Biddeford’s Secret Spaces Hidden Places tour on May 31. It allows visitors to view the dry masonry work and engineering used to build the canals that ran under the mills, providing water power that ran the looms.

Code Enforcement Officer Roby Fecteau, upon inspecting the lagoon site, noted that there is no dedicated walkway, no emergency lighting, no fire alarm system and egress issues.

Well, of course not. Such provisions would simply be foolish in this instance.

Safety codes are certainly important for buildings that are regularly used for public or private business, and we’re not arguing against having a set of rules to keep such places safe and healthy. Those codes, however, shouldn’t apply to these undeveloped parts of the Pepperell Mill Campus.

The Biddeford Mills Museum, which leads the tours, has provided a stable stairway to the lagoon site and a viewing platform with railings, and the area is well-lit. With visitors only stopping there for 15 minutes or so, the site doesn’t need the type of safety provisions we want in a workplace or public facility.

City officials know that the mill owners are not going to invest in improvements to bring these sites up to the same standards as buildings that are in use, just so people can continue touring them. It simply doesn’t make any sense for the mills to add emergency lighting and dedicated walkways, as Fecteau is now requiring, for these tours when there is no return on investment. Not all mill owners are as generous as Doug Sanford, Scott Joslin and others have been; these are privately-owned buildings, after all. They’ve been allowing the tours for the past two years because it hasn’t cost them anything and it helps the public understand not only the city’s history but also its future potential ”“ and that is all in their best interest.

It would be ridiculous for either the museum or the mill owners to invest money in bringing these areas up to code only to destroy those improvements when a new tenant wants to use the space and close it off to the public.

The mill tours were heavily promoted during the Secret Spaces Hidden Places tour, and the lagoon was a very popular stop on that tour. Many people expressed interest in attending one of the museum’s wider tours, and interest has been high during the past two years as well. It’s that heightened interest that drew the codes officer’s attention, and while we’re glad he’s looking out for visitors’ safety, we’d like to see him take a lighter hand to this special case due to its historical nature.

Tour guide George “Pete” Lamontagne noted that he has taken about 1,000 people through the buildings without incident. The tours have provided a unique opportunity for people to walk through these gargantuan buildings that make up such a large part of our community identity, and get a feel for what our ancestors endured while working there.

By throwing the book at the museum and mill owners, the city is shooting itself in the foot. The codes office is not only thwarting efforts to promote the city’s history, it’s also eliminating the most promising and interesting fundraiser for the Biddeford Mills Museum, which will delay its goal of making a permanent home. Within the next few decades, these mills will lose much of their historic heft as they are redeveloped, beautified and repurposed. Once the smell of wool is expunged, the Vellux blanket fluff vacuumed up and the rickety windows replaced, visitors will find it more difficult to be transported back in time when visiting these buildings.

While we are all in favor of seeing the mill buildings bustling once again, we hope the codes officer reconsiders his approach so people can get a glimpse of their history before it’s painted over.

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Today’s editorial was written by Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.