LEWISTON — The Twin Cities are already one community and Chip Morrison is positive they will be one city — someday.

“When I first came here 39 years ago, there were lots of people from Auburn who had never been to Lewiston,” Morrison said Thursday. “And there were lots of people from Lewiston who had never gone to Auburn. The world is much different today; the world is much smaller and we live in what has become one strong and vibrant community. We’re trying to make it one vibrant municipality.”

Morrison, a member of the Lewiston-Auburn Charter Commission, joined commission Co-chairwoman Holly Lasagna behind the microphone for a lunchtime Great Falls Forum presentation at the Lewiston Public Library.

The pair talked about their work on the charter combining Lewiston and Auburn, and plans to put it up to a vote — likely on the same ballot as November’s presidential election, but possibly later.

“People say, ‘Why hurry?'” Morrison said. “Well, it depends upon when we get our work done. But there is one election every eight years that has the best voter turnout. This is a big decision and it should be voted on by the most people.”

The six-member charter group has been meeting since June 2014 to write a charter for a combined Lewiston-Auburn. The group released a draft charter in January and began working on an economic study, looking at how departments in each city compare in terms of costs and services.

Lasagna said that study, a baseline report on municipal operations, will be presented publicly at 6 p.m. Monday, June 13, at the Auburn Public Library.

The commission now wants to create public committees of councilors, citizens and city employees from both cities. Those committees would write suggestions for how the new city could operate.

Auburn’s City Council voted Monday not to let city staff participate in that process. Morrison said Thursday that he and the rest of the charter group were disappointed but undaunted.

“The more people we have under the tent gathering data and reflecting on options, the better you are,” Morrison said. “Even before Monday’s vote, municipal officials in both cities helped put together the baseline report. We have the data, so now we need to reflect on what it means and our options going forward.”

The work continues as the charter group figures out municipal ward lines and calculates debt payments after consolidation.

“If the citizens decide there should be one city, the debt from Lewiston before consolidation stays with Lewiston and the debt from Auburn stays with Auburn,” Morrison said. “For some period of time, there will be differential tax rates. A citizen of Lewiston can’t get the citizens of Auburn to pay off that debt.”

One final question could be the toughest, Morrison said: naming the new city. That’s one question the group must settle, according to state statutes, before the charter group sends it out for a vote.

Lasagna said the commission is open to suggestions.

“We’ve been talking about it and this may be the one fun thing we get to do,” Lasagna said.

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