GORHAM – In the aftermath of public misgivings about renovation of the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, the town of Gorham took a step on Tuesday to strengthen its relationship with the university.

The Gorham Town Council named Dahlia Lynn, a Gorham resident who is the university’s associate provost for undergraduate education, to the town’s Historic Preservation Committee.

Town Councilor Bruce Roullard, chairman of the committee, said before Tuesday’s meeting that the university’s Gorham campus has several buildings in the National Register of Historic Places, including its art gallery, built in 1821.

The university fell under fire from preservation advocates statewide last month when its plans called for replacing original clapboards on the 193-year old art gallery with vinyl siding in a $320,000 renovation project. Soothing a public outcry, the university announced plans this week to re-side with wooden clapboards similar to originals.

“It’s very good news,” Roullard said.

The decision followed meetings involving university representatives; Earle Shettleworth, director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission; various other officials and preservation advocates.

“I’m pleased they worked together,” said Roullard, a USM alumnus.

Another meeting about the art gallery is set to be hosted by the university on Wednesday, Aug.13, on the Gorham campus, with the university yet to announce a time or specific location.

Roullard said the art gallery matter would be “fully” discussed at the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee meeting on Thursday, Aug. 14.

“I’ll make a full report,” he said.

Judie O’Malley, university spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that the contractor, Doten’s Construction, is in the process of a change order and would procure the wood siding.

“We’re using wooden clapboards with a 3-inch reveal,” O’Malley said.

“I think it’s moving in a positive direction,” said Gorham resident Adam Ogden, who raised public awareness of the art gallery condition when he saw its exterior had been stripped.

O’Malley said the switch to pine clapboards is expected to cost the university an additional $20,000 to $30,000. But Ogden, who acquired copies of all university correspondence about the renovation, said the university could have saved $16,000, if it had elected to repair the building’s existing siding.

“It would have had its original pine,” Ogden said. “They chose to go with vinyl.”

O’Malley said vinyl siding would have been more durable and that a university official felt that the quality of pine today would not be as good as that available in the 19th century. She said the pine siding would require periodical painting.

“The final project will be white,” O’Malley said.

Large windows were also removed from the art gallery and it is unclear whether those would be restored and installed on the building. Ogden said he hasn’t heard how many of the original windows were saved. University plans had called for replacing windows with exterior shutters.

Ogden said windowsills and moldings are gone and vinyl moldings would not be appropriate on the building. O’Malley believed that a discussion about windows could come in next week’s meeting.

The preservation issue has delayed construction and cost time, as university classes begin on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

“It has set the project back several weeks,” O’Malley said.

The art gallery was built as a religious meetinghouse and later utilized for Gorham’s town meetings. The building and its lot were transferred to the state in 1961 and it has served as a college art gallery since 1966.

Other landmarks on the Gorham campus include the Gorham Academy, which opened in 1806, and the brick McLellan House. The Gorham Historical Society website reports construction of the house began in 1769 and it’s the oldest brick house in Cumberland County.