AUGUSTA -- What will Augusta look like in a decade or two?

Ask Lester "Les" Wilkinson Jr.

Wilkinson heads a 13-member committee that is about halfway through a two-year update of the city's comprehensive plan, the document that guides the future shape and focus of the community.

The winds of change are blowing, said Wilkinson, 50, an attorney at the law firm of Bernstein Shur who lives on Hutchinson Drive.

There may be setbacks, he said, but he remains confident his city is changing for the better. And slowly, he said, that change is being recognized elsewhere.

"I don't hear the 'Disgusta' thing anymore," said Wilkinson, an Augusta resident since 1981 who grew up in Rhode Island. "Slowly, I would say, it's changing, but I don't think it's on the front of their minds. I think the overall impression over 50 miles away is they perceive us as the state capital. They don't perceive us as a municipality. They might perceive us as a place with a great girls basketball team (2006-07 state champions), but other than that, it's the Statehouse."

Still, Wilkinson sees reason for optimism.

The new director for the city's YMCA was convinced to move from his native Connecticut after visiting the area to see what it had to offer, he said. And recruitment of lawyers for his own office, Wilkinson said, has become easier.

The city's new standing as a regional retail center also has brought new visitors who might not otherwise show up and those impressions are also spreading the word, at least in this part of the state, he said.

"You do have people of different backgrounds and new perspectives willing to uproot themselves and come to town," he said. "It is hard to gauge. But I think it is changing as more and more people hear about it."

Many city leaders point to the city's dramatic new high school, the new YMCA, MaineGeneral Health's new cancer center, large retail commercial developments and new investments in housing as indicators of renewed vitality for Augusta.

But Wilkinson said more than the projects themselves, the financial investment they have received -- a combination of public and private charitable contributions, corporate spending and investments by individual entrepreneurs -- indicate to him that a wide range of individuals and business investors agree the city's future is bright.

"We're still on the upside and things are going to continue to develop and grow inescapeably," Wilkinson said.

Gary Remal -- 621-5642

gremal@centralmaine.com