LEWISTON — Now may be the right time to talk about erasing dividing lines between the Twin Cities, according to one Lewiston city councilor.
Council President Mark Cayer said he is calling for a serious discussion between the two city councils at their joint meeting May 1.
“My goal is one thing: to get both councils to agree to sit down and have a serious discussion about it. Period,” Cayer said.
His suggestions are detailed in a memo scheduled to be released in the joint meeting information packet on Friday, he said.
“I’m not saying I support it at this point, but I do think it’s something that both councils need to seriously discuss,” Cayer said. “We’ll need to talk about putting it before the voters. Truly, the councils can’t decide this. It’s a voter decision.”
The two cities have talked about cooperation off and on since 1996, when they combined to write the L/A Together report on ways to cooperate.
It was picked up again in 2004 when the Guay brothers, Lewiston Mayor Lionel and Auburn Mayor Norm, formed a new commission of business and community leaders to review their options.
That led to the creation of the Citizens Commission on Joint Lewiston and Auburn Cooperation in 2006 and that group’s report in 2009. It identified $2 million in savings over five years by consolidating administrative positions, police, public works equipment purchases and economic development.
The cooperation effort was dissolved in 2009, but Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte brought it back up in February, saying it might be a way for the two cities to cut costs without painful budget cuts.
A survey released in 2005 as part of the Lewiston-Auburn Commission on Joint Services’ work showed broad support in both cities for merging individual departments. That support dropped off completely, however, when it came to merging both cities entirely.
According to the 2005 survey, 35 percent of Twin Cities residents polled said they’d support cooperation across the cities if it led to a complete merger; 56 percent said they were against it.
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