AUBURN — A proposed budget cut could sideline a Citylink bus, forcing Auburn routes to share buses and resulting in reduced service in the next fiscal year.

Members of the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee on Wednesday supported the plan to double up the New Auburn, Auburn Mall, Minot Avenue and downtown and mall shuttle routes in response to a spending cut proposed by City Manager Howard Kroll.

Under the proposed cuts, the New Auburn route would be shortened from 60 minutes to 30 and it would join the other routes that share buses. 

The alternative way to trim spending was to eliminate the Minot Avenue route entirely, according to Phil Nadeau, chairman of the committee and Lewiston’s deputy city administrator.

“It was one of the first places we started talking about because Minot Avenue, out of the entire system, is the least performing route we offer,” Nadeau said.

But eliminating the Minot route would also eliminate Americans with Disabilities Act service there, and Minot Avenue is one of the biggest users of ADA service. People who require special transportation can pay their bus fare and get special rides as long as they live along a fixed route.

“ADA ridership on the Minot Avenue route is somewhere in the vicinity of 30 percent of the total in Auburn — 30 percent,” Nadeau said. “It’s not that option one, Minot Avenue, can’t be considered, but you need to be aware of what that means.”

Members of the committee agreed that doubling up service was preferable to ending a route.

“I think it’s preferable to (go with) option 2 because of the ADA,” committee member Lucy Bisson said. “If we do it and end 30 percent of our ADA ridership, we’re just cutting off our nose to spite our face. Option 2 is a better way to go.”

Kroll’s proposed budget calls for cutting $26,129 from what the city pays to the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments for the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee. Citylink requested $235,373 each from Lewiston and Auburn for the bus service. Lewiston city councilors approved full funding for Citylink, but Auburn’s share would be reduced to $209,244 in Kroll’s proposed 2016-17 budget.

Kroll said in April that the $26,129 represents what AVCOG currently pays in salaries for its staff that supports the bus service and that he objected to Auburn property tax money going for that same purpose.

But Nadeau said Auburn’s budget would mean deeper cuts based on federal matching formulas, up to $106,000 from the Citylink budget. That’s roughly enough to keep one bus in service.

Citylink uses seven buses to serve nine bus routes and shuttles downtown and around the Auburn Mall area, Monday through Saturday. The proposed cuts would only affect the weekday services.

The weekday routes on Main, Sabattus and Lisbon streets in Lewiston and in New Auburn offer hourly service on 60-minute routes with a single bus serving each.

The remaining routes — the downtown and mall shuttles, the Minot Avenue and Auburn Mall routes in Auburn and College Street in Lewiston — share the remaining three buses. Those routes are shorter but still offer hourly service. A bus will finish one 30-minute route and proceed to the next.

But Assistant City Manager Denis D’Auteauil reminded the committee that Auburn’s council had not settled its budget yet.

“It is proposed, but no action has been taken by the council,” D’Auteuil said. “This cut has not technically occurred and I think that’s very important for everybody to understand.”

City councilors will host a public hearing on the budget Monday, May 16. According to the city charter, they must adopt the budget by the end of June.

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