After a sometimes heated public hearing last week on a proposed $1 million bond to allow the town to purchase and demolish the Worumbo Mill, the Town Council on Tuesday voted to put the bond before voters at the Nov. 5 general election.

The vote was not unanimous but rather 5-2 with councilors Dillon Pesce and Mark Lunt opposed. The council amended the warrant item to change the proposed 15-year bond to a 30-year bond as recommended by the Finance Committee.

The council also discussed its recommendation to voters on the bond, and with a motion on a recommendation of “yes” for it to pass, the council voted 4-3 with Pesce and Lunt opposed, as well as councilor Gregg Garrison, who said he felt the council shouldn’t make a recommendation.

The mill hasn’t been used since 2006. It went on the market in 2009 for $999,000 and that sales price has dropped to around $600,000. The assessed value of all properties is $400,300. The cost to acquire the properties from Miller Industries would be $100,000 and a cost of about $520,000 for demolition, $75,000 for ground cover, $60,000 in environmental analysis and $15,000 in legal fees.

Town Manager Steve Eldridge said at the Sept. 10 public hearing on the bond that the building is 25,000 square feet on each of three floors, on 5.5 acres of land facing the Androscoggin River. The deal also includes five Mill Street plots totaling 10.9 acres, which “completes the land around the Papermill Trail,” Eldridge said.

Council chairman Fern Larochelle said Tuesday there are still questions to be answered with the Mill Street properties, so even if the bond passes in November there is still no guarantee the town will acquire that land. The town’s legal counsel has suggested the town have an outside entity come and look at the proposed deal.

There was some public comment Tuesday, first from Don Fellows, who said in part, “None of us, none of us as taxpayers want property taxes (to) increase, but if they are ever going to go down we must find a way to develop in a commercial way so as to shift the burden away from the private property owners. To make this as fair as possible you absolutely must give the voters a chance to make a decision yes or no.”

Debbie Barry spoke and posed questions and pointed out issues she saw with the warrant, also noting that the council stated it would get the feel of the pulse of the public on the matter at meetings, and “the public told you it didn’t want it, period, so you have misled the public.” She asked the council to table several components of the warrant that needed to be clarified.

During the council discussion, the issue of conflict of interest arose because Larochelle owns abutting property to the Miller Street parcel. But Larochelle said the town had received a legal opinion that he should have no problem voting Tuesday on what he argued is the idea of putting the matter before 7,500 registered voters to decide.

In answer to a question by residents at the Sept. 10 public hearing about condemning the building and requiring the owner to tear it down, Lisbon Codes Enforcement Officer Dennis Douglass said it wouldn’t be that easy.

Douglass said Tuesday that by state statute regulating dangerous buildings, a structural engineer would need to assess the property and deem it structurally unsafe, unstable, unsanitary, constitute a fire hazard and be unsuitable or improper for the use or occupancy for which it is put, “and my assessment from being in the building, that’s going to be very hard to achieve because that’s a very solid building.” If the building was condemnable, the town would order demolition in superior court and if the town won that case, the property owner would be responsible for the cost for demolition. If the owner didn’t, the town could step in and could recover the cost by putting a tax lien on the property.

Eldridge added that in 2006 a structural engineer, Harriman Associates hired by Miller Industries, said the building was structurally sound.

Councilor Lisa Ward, who presided over the Sept. 10 public hearing, said at the end of the meeting that she voted to bring the Worumbo Mill bond to voters because at that public hearing, “I got a mixed message. There was not an overwhelming number of people who did not wish it to go to vote. I didn’t get an overwhelming feel for any direction,” though she did get a clear message from some people. A question this big, “I think should go to voters.”

Larochelle said, “I am actually excited that we actually have the town, and 7,500 people, to get educated on this and make a decision.”

The drawback is the effect on taxes, no question he said, but it’s not the idea of the town putting itself in debt, Larochelle said, but moving forward with a vision formed by many community members who have come to meetings and participated in efforts to better the town.

“This is really going to be a vote for the people to determine whether or not you want to invest in your downtown to make it look better and move forward in a more positive way,” or they can vote no, he said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com