MILLINOCKET – The Town Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to effectively reaffirm last month’s vote authorizing $99,000 to buy a Central Street apartment duplex to create a museum for the Millinocket Historical Society.

Councilors voted 4-3 against rescinding the Oct. 25 order, effectively allowing the $99,000 purchase – about $89,000 for the building and $10,000 more for upkeep. Councilor Scott Gonya asked to have the rescind measure put on the agenda, but led Tuesday’s vote in favor of the purchase, saying he only wanted the museum issue debated further.

“I feel it needs more discussion,” Gonya said before the vote. “I’m very unhappy with how our last meeting went on this. We rushed it; it wasn’t intentional. I really would like to see everyone, all seven councilors, support the historical society getting this building.”

Council Chairman Wallace Paul and Councilors Jimmy Busque, David Cyr and Gonya voted down repealing the Oct. 25 vote. Councilors Bruce McLean, James Mingo and Matthew Polstein voted for it. They said the building’s price is inflated and the building needs a professional appraisal and inspection.

“It’s unconscionable for us to buy this building in this context,” Polstein said. “We are acting in a fashion that is outrageous.”

Located at 80 Central St., the building has a tax assessed value of $67,000, and according to an inspection by code enforcement officer Michael Noble, several 9-by-9-inch floor tiles in one room might be asbestos. The opposing councilors also said the building needs a ramp; its fuse box needs circuit breakers; and its roof might need replacement in 10 or 20 years.

Mingo said the building would probably require a new, five-zone furnace worth about $18,000 and several doors widened for disabled residents. He said he found two or three other apartments “in the same category” offered for $69,000 to $79,000 that haven’t moved in a year.

“You could be talking in the neighborhood of $250,000 for renovations here,” Mingo said. “It’s better to spend a little money at first than get stuck with a lot of money at the end.”

Nor does the society have an articulated plan for raising almost $4,000 per month necessary for paying back the $99,000 within two years, or a formal loan agreement with the town, the opponents said.

“We are flying blind here. There are a lot of things we don’t have dollar figures for,” Mingo said, calling the society plan “very vague.”

“I think that we all want the society to have what they need, but I have some concerns about this thing,” he added.

Gonya and Busque listed several organizations, including the senior center, proposed cultural center, town golf course and tax breaks given to several large town businesses, including the mill, as examples of the council’s consistency in giving town efforts a hand up.

Society members have been searching for five years for a building and investigated four downtown buildings and got price quotes of $90,000 to $400,000, much higher than the building owned by Carl Mott, Gonya said.

And Cyr reiterated his earlier argument against an appraisal, saying that it would plumb the depths of the depressed apartment market without envisioning the building as a museum. Nor would it calculate the value of its location to the society, Busque said.

Society members voted 18-1 in favor of buying the building, Gonya said.

“It’s a building they could really work with and do something with,” Cyr said.