Freese’s frozen

The discussions between Bangor City Council and the Maine School for the Arts have arrived at the cul-de-sac of negotiating stages — they have gone as far as possible and now are going in circles. The city, properly, doesn’t want to commit money to the project to turn the front portion of the old Freese’s building into the school, but art-school officials cannot go forward at this point without money.

So around and around go the city councilors and art-school officials. Does the city support the project? Yes, councilors say. Will the city risk taxpayer dollars on it? No, councilors say. Has the school raised enough money to move ahead with the project? Working on it, says Daryl Rhodes, the man behind the school. Could the city alter the terms of the agreement to help the school? Depends, say councilors. Does the city support the project? Yes, say councilors. And so forth, through dozens of city council meetings on the subject dating back to 1994.

Again this month the two sides are engaged in a discussion over details of an agreement that probably seem essential to them, but are just so much paper-shuffling to the public. This time they include questions on who, specifically, will be the developer and whether that developer must pledge $100,000 in start-up capital or may work toward raising $530,000 in private contributions. It isn’t that there is anything wrong with paying attention to details, but the efforts should lead somewhere. In this case, all they lead to is another meeting about details.

Meanwhile, the large portion of Main Street that Freese’s occupies remains undeveloped. The roof over this section of the building leaks like Niagra and the ground floor has the distinction of being the only edifice in the city that was improved by the addition of two dozen sheets of gray-painted plywood. All sides are losing as the discussions over the building drag on.

A completed school at this site will cost between $8 million and $9 million, with a couple of million in repairs required just to move in. The school appears nowhere near to raising that level of funding. Instead of prolonging what has already been an overlong exercise, city councilors could steer the school toward smaller, less decrepit quarters somewhere else. Surely there are vacant buildings around that would meet the school’s requirements and its budget.

No one likes to say no to a dream — and an arts school is a particularly noble dream. But unless the school can show it has access to the money it needs to repair Freese’s, the council should redirect the project and start looking for someone else to develop the building.