BRUNSWICK — With plans to move municipal offices to the first two floors of the downtown McLellan Building in 2014, the Brunswick Town Council during a special meeting Tuesday voted 6-3 to reject an offer of $2 million to put the building back in Bowdoin College’s hands.

Last fall, the town reached an agreement with the college to acquire that downtown building in exchange for the closed Longfellow School, located on property adjacent to the college campus.

Seeing the town’s expected budget challenges, Town Manager Gary Brown said, college officials offered last week to reopen an offer that would give the town the $2 million that the college had previously offered in exchange for the Longfellow School.

Proponents of keeping the McLellan Building argued that the town’s long-range plans trump short-term financial gain in a year when the school department will be looking to close a $3 million budget gap, in part by asking for more from the town.

“If we accept this offer, we would be kicking the can down the road,” Town Councilor Margo Knight said, in support of keeping the McLellan Building.

“It seems like that $2 million is the perfect round peg to fit in that hole, but I agree with those who said we need to look at fixing the budget long term.”

Brown said Tuesday that an original evaluation by PDT Architects put the cost of renovating the McLellan Building for the town’s use at $100,000, which he thought at the time to be low. Brown said he doubled that amount in the budget of the capital improvement plan.

A later estimate by Wright-Ryan and Ouellet Associates for complete gutting and renovation of the first two floors of the building — including creating new town council chambers and offices — came in closer to $800,000.

“But until we have exact plans and until we vet exactly what we’re going to do over there, it’s still a number in process,” Brown said.

Those in favor of sticking with the building swap pointed to the assessed value of the respective properties, with an estimate last April putting the value of the former Longfellow School at around $1 million and the value of the McLellan Building around $4 million.

Councilors reconsidering the build- ing swap did not all come down on the side of taking the money. Some sought more time to discuss the issue.

At-Large Town Councilor Benet Pols, who cast the lone vote against the swap last year, said after Tuesday’s meeting that he would have liked more time to hear the college’s new offer. He also raised questions about the renovation estimate for the building that came back at $ 800,000, as opposed to the $ 200,000 budgeted for that purpose in the town’s Capital Improvement Plan.

“I want to have those numbers fully vetted,” Pols said, “ but if forced to vote now, then I say take the money.”

Councilor Sarah Brayman also said she would have liked more “ active discussion” about the new offer and to have the new numbers reviewed.

After seven speakers took the podium during Tuesday’s public comment period, the council wrapped up the 40-minute meeting with limited discussion, casting a 6-3 vote against the proposal to sell the McLellan Building back to Bowdoin College.

After hearing a position statement from each councilor, chairwoman Joanne King urged a vote Tuesday.

“The reason I don’t think this needs to be dragged out is that people (who) decided to buy (McLellan) are still comfortable and the people (who) were against buying are still against buying the building,” King said.

Councilor Gerald Favreau motioned to reject the college’s new offer after his comments and before comments from councilors Knight, Brayman and Pols.

Councilors John Perreault, Brayman and Pols voted in the minority; councilors David Watson, Suzan Wilson, Ben Tucker, King, Favreau and Knight voted in favor of keeping the McLellan Building.

Brunswick Community United

With branded stickers in hand, members of Brunswick Community United (BCU) — a group that formed on Facebook and made up of parents concerned chiefly with Brunswick’s schools — spoke mostly in favor of the town keeping the McLellan Building.

Jeff Pelletier, a member of the group, said that “it’s tempting to take the $2 million, but then next year we’ll be right back where we are now.”

Sarah Singer, another group member, urged that any funds from a sale go toward school facilities, which Superintendent of Schools Paul Perzanoski last week said should be where community members show the most support.

Group member Kate Kalajainen said after Tuesday’s meeting that she was pleased with statements from various councilors stating the need for supporting Brunswick’s schools.

School Board member Matt Corey also addressed the council to express his personal opinions Tuesday. Corey urged that the $ 2 million not be viewed as a one-time solution.

“We are going to have problems with the school budget for the next three or four years,” Corey said, based on projections from School Board budget committee chairman Rich Ellis.

Ellis said after Tuesday’s meeting that he’s begun to take a look at similar districts in the area, which he said are facing the same cuts in federal funds, though Brunswick was hit harder in cuts to state aid.

Not all of the area school budgets have been completed, Ellis said, but on average they ask for a 4.5 percent increase in local education spending for next year to fill revenue gaps, largely from federal stimulus funding that dried up this year. In Brunswick, that amounted to around $700,000 in last year’s budget.

“Other districts are asking (municipalities) to pitch in to help cover the gap,” Ellis said. “My hope is that Brunswick invests in a manner that is comparable.”

Movement elsewhere

The town’s long-range plans include moving municipal offices into the McLellan Building as the police department moves into a new station in the works at the corner of Stanwood and Pleasant streets.

Town officials have not crafted a proposal for how that police station project would be funded. A subcommittee assigned to guide the police station project last week sent project architect Brett Donham back to revise design plans after the latest cost estimates for a two-story, 26,000-square-foot building came back at $7.2 million.

At a police station subcommittee meeting last week, Brown said that an acceptable figure for that project would be at or under $5.5 million. Town officials pushed back the project timeline to accommodate the reconfiguration of the project to come in under that amount.

The town does not yet own the land for the planned police station project, but the current owner — the Brunswick Development Corp. (BDC) — signed a letter of intent in December indicating that its plans to hand that property over to the town specifically for the purpose of a building a police station.

Brown said in October that “there has been discussion” that the municipal building at 28 Federal St. could be exchanged with the BDC for that land at Pleasant and Stanwood streets.

Brown said last week that he hopes to have a new design for the police station project by early June.

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