LEWISTON — With some saying they were glad a 1933 school building is being restored, voters said yes Tuesday to spending $9.1 million to improve and expand the Lewiston Middle School.

Unofficial ballot returns Tuesday night showed the vote was 651-219, with a voter turnout of 3.6 percent, higher than expected for a first-ever July referendum, City Clerk Kathy Montejo said.

Lewiston School Superintendent Bill Webster said he was pleased and grateful.

“Thank you, voters of Lewiston,” Webster said. “I appreciate the fact that voters recognized the importance of this referendum to both meeting our obligation to students, and enhancing the learning environment at Lewiston Middle School.”

The classic brick building, which architects have said has good bones, was originally built as Lewiston High School and became the middle school when the new high school was built on East Avenue.

For 79 years the building has never had a major renovation. Outside, it looks beautiful, but inside it is tired and worn with smelly bathrooms, inadequate lockers, dingy halls and not enough classroom, cafeteria and library space.

Ten voters interviewed Tuesday afternoon all said they voted yes.

“The school’s old and it really needs the updating,” said Carrie Kivus, 45. She and her husband, Timothy, 46, graduated from the school in 1981, “and it was old when we were there,” she said. They have one child who attended the school, another will attend this fall.

The school “is obsolete,” he said. Problems include inadequate heating, it’s too hot or too cold, she said. “The bathrooms are awful. The lockers are awful. There’s water stains everywhere.” When asked about increasing property taxes, Kivus said, “I don’t care. It’s money well spent.”

Siyad Abdi, 40, voted yes saying the school needs to be expanded to accommodate more students.

Roger Charpentier, 62, voted yes “because that school is needed heavily for the amount of people in the city. That building is so old.” He graduated when the building was Lewiston High School.

Monique Gagne, 76, voted yes and appreciated that the building will be preserved.

“They just tore down my Edward Little and I’m upset. I didn’t want that to happen here in Lewiston. I like to keep the old buildings,” Gagne said. She likes historic buildings in Quebec and Italy. “Here, we tear them down. It’s sentimental to us.”

Richard Grandmaison “voted yes, reluctantly,” he said. “Why? My brother was the maintenance man over there, my father was the maintenance man at the high school. The School Department does not spend enough money maintaining their facilities.” He and his wife, Diane, graduated from the school in 1961 when it was the high school. “There were 2,000 students in that building then,” she said.

Brent Watson, 36, voted yes acknowledging he has a “vested interest. I teach there. Within a few years two of my own children will be there.”

The school’s old. When people walk into the building, “you’re met with nothing. You have to go up the stairs” to greet a receptionist. Renovation plans call for offices and the receptionist to be moved to the first floor. That will make it more inviting, Watson said.

City officials estimated the $9.1 million bond, which will be paid for by local taxpayer money, could increase property taxpayers by about $37.50 a year on a home valued at $150,000.

Superintendent Webster said the impact will be less than that, because Lewiston’s student population is rising, which means more state money for education could decrease the impact on property taxes.

Webster said he’ll meet with architects on Wednesday. The construction timetable is not worked out, but he estimated renovation could begin this winter and be completed in two years.

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