No one who travels to Lewiston’s Central Maine Civic Center will marvel at the parking surface. It’s dirt and it takes a pounding from rain, frost and occasional yahoos who zoom around in cars and scar the surface.

Owner Roger Theriault has battled the elements and vandals for years, and the rough surface is generally fine to park cars for events held at the arena. But it isn’t fine as a permanent solution for overflow parking at the Multi-Purpose Center across Birch Street.

The center, which is also home to the Longley School, is a destination for hundreds of people a day. Most of them are students and teachers, but a large number are people attending public functions at the center, and many of those people are elderly.

The Multi-Purpose Center has a fairly large parking lot, but not large enough to accommodate all daily visitors. So the city of Lewiston pays Theriault $600 every year to use a corner of his lot for overflow parking. When the Multi-Purpose lot is full, visitors and employees have to park across the street.

When they pull into the civic center lot they first have to navigate past a cavernous ditch and around numerous potholes. And, once parked, they have to walk on an uneven and pitted surface before crossing the street to the Multi-Purpose Center.

It can be a treacherous crossing, especially after a rainstorm and especially for the elderly or disabled.

Theriault is doing a lot to improve the civic center and does grade his lot each spring, including the corner open to Multi-Purpose Center parking. But that isn’t enough.

To create a safer surface, that end of the parking lot needs more frequent grading.

This is not a new problem. Theriault has heard the complaints for years. So has the city.

The fee the city pays is nominal and certainly not enough to cover additional maintenance.

The solution might be shared responsibility.

The city, which used to grade the lot for the Franco Fest at no charge to Theriault, has the equipment to grade the lower corner of this lot. Perhaps it could provide the equipment and labor for monthly grading and Theriault could pick up the tab for fuel and materials.

Taxpayers and city employees deserve a safe parking surface when attending public functions and going to work.

If Theriault and the city are serious about improving the image of the downtown, this is a small but significant contribution.


jmeyer@sunjournal.com