AUBURN — City councilors met Monday night to vote on repurposing Ingersoll Arena and whether to authorize funding for the new Downtown Transportation Center.

The debate of the evening centered on the authorization of funds for Downtown Transportation Center-related design and construction costs.

Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said the project has bounced to and from the council as the concept grew from a sheltered bus stop with bathrooms for Citylink bus drivers to a more full-service station that would draw business from coach lines such as Concord Trailways.

Discussions about the structure evolved into possibilities of a parking garage, necessitating changes in design — in turn changing the price tag and sending designers scrambling for ways to save money on the $500,000 structure — including those affecting the aesthetic of the structure.

Councilor Belinda Gerry presented a motion to table the vote after failing to provide a reason why. Her motion failed.

“I don’t want to see the building start to change so it looks like a dump down there,” Councilor Leroy Walker said. “If we’re only going to have a s— house down there, then let’s not do it — it’s that simple.”

Councilor Adam Lee also voiced his opposition to a degraded version of the planned structure. “I was incredibly supportive of doing the footers now on the premise that what we would be developing there is something that we would want to have as the center of our downtown,” he said.

“I don’t know if the decreased version of that is necessarily what we would want to make as the center of downtown,” Lee said.

Another vote to table the matter passed 5-1 with Councilor Robert Hayes opposed and Councilor Mary LaFontaine absent.

Councilors unanimously voted for the reallocation of $350,000 to repurpose Ingersoll Arena without any debate or discussion from the public or Recreation Department personnel present.

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