Lewiston residents have conducted the meetings since April.
LEWISTON – Lewiston is a peaceful place, according to longtime resident Rita Jean, and she’d hate to see it labeled otherwise.
She’s afraid the city could be labeled an ugly, unfriendly place based on a report from a summer-long community meeting series. Jean and 11 other Lewiston residents discussed the report with Assistant City Administrator Phil Nadeau Thursday night.
“I just don’t think we have any big problems that need to be solved,” Jean said. “I think we’re pretty good.”
The report is the culmination of the Lewiston Leads series that began in April in the wake of the Jan. 11 rallies. Using a system created by the Department of Justice, a group of 20 residents began hosting community meetings to discuss how to make Lewiston friendlier for everyone, regardless of their differences.
Nadeau said he would take Thursday night’s comments back to the series organizing committee and try to present the final report to the City Council later this month.
“There’s no big wow here,” Nadeau said. “It doesn’t suggest creating a new city department. It doesn’t call for hiring one employee. It wouldn’t build a building, a Hall of Diversity, in Lewiston.”
The report urges average residents and community groups to act on their own. It also suggests building more affordable housing, providing cultural sensitivity training for city employees and encouraging people to get involved in the city.
The report also calls for a committee to advise the City Council about community relations, including diversity issues. The report calls that group a Bridges Committee, and Nadeau said it could be in charge of all of the other recommendations.
Lewiston resident Norm Anctil said that sounded like another level of bureaucracy for the city.
“Wouldn’t that be redundant with other committees?” Anctil said. “It sounds like we’re trying to create a utopian space, and that doesn’t work. I’m afraid that we’re going to start a wheel turning that we won’t be able to stop.”
One criticism did hit home, Nadeau said. He wants to create a page and half summary of the 13-page report.
“Some people have commented they’ve had a hard time reading it,” he said. “We might want something simple that just covers the important points.”
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