A University of Southern Maine official said last week it plans to fully restore its historic, 1821 art gallery on the Gorham campus when finances allow.

“Our goal is to restore this building to mimic its time period,” Tim Braun, university project engineer, said.

The university has experienced financial difficulties in recent years.

“We’re doing what we can with what we have,” Braun said.

Braun’s comments followed a meeting of the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee meeting on Aug. 13, in which a committee member, Noah Miner, reported on the art gallery project.

Restoration of the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery has been the focus of some public criticism that began in 2014 after vintage clapboards were stripped from the structure. The Maine Historic Preservation Commission plans a review of the building to determine whether it meets the criteria to remain on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places.

The university says it has spent in excess of $400,000 on the art gallery project.

Miner reviewed university records connected to the restoration, and said he didn’t know for sure whether federal standards for restoration were met.

He didn’t think that replacement clapboards would be a “deal breaker.”

In another area of concern, the university appeared to have altered bases of columns on the front of the building that faces College Avenue.

“They cut bottoms of columns off,” Miner said.

But Miner said the paperwork he reviewed contained much about budgets. He said repairing the columns would have cost $60,000.

Most of the art gallery windows have been placed in storage. Four windows were restored, Braun said, and re-installed in the building.

“The windows look real good,” Miner said.

Bruce Roullard, chairman of the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee and Town Council vice chairman, said he had spoken with Kirk Mahoney, assistant director of the state’s historic preservation commission, and confirmed the state is planning an inspection of the art gallery.

In another matter, Stephanie Carver, senior land use planner at the Greater Portland Council of Governments, presented information about development of a potential historic preservation ordinance in Gorham. The Gorham committee this fall could recommend a proposed ordinance to the Town Council.

Janice Labrecque, a member of the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee, said she has a real problem with telling people, who paid a lot of money for property, what they can do with it.

Town Manager David Cole said the question is whether town action on historic preservation should be advisory or compulsory.

“That is the fundamental question,” Cole said.

Roullard wants to hear comments from business owners and homeowners in a televised workshop about a proposed ordinance. The committee set 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Town Council chambers in Gorham Municipal Center, 75 South St., for the public meeting.

Gorham resident Noah Miner delivers a report Aug. 13 to the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee about his findings on restoration of the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery. Miner and Dahlia Lynn of the university, right, are both members of the town’s committee.Staff photo by Robert Lowell