LEWISTON – Leaders from Androscoggin County cities and towns took a plan for more cooperation back home with them Wednesday night.

Over dinner in the Lewiston Multi-Purpose Center elected leaders from seven communities and the county talked about ways to work together and combine services.

Then, with copies of a resolution pledging more cooperation, they walked across the street to the Central Maine Civic Center and attended a Lewiston Maineiacs hockey game.

Jim Bennett, Lewiston city administrator, said Wednesday’s meeting was designed to get the towns talking about ways to pool their efforts.

“There’s a chance that we could save some money here,” Bennett said. “I think there are opportunities to combine services, maybe do some things in ways that make a little more sense. That’s what we really want you to think about tonight.”

Along with Lewiston and county officials, the city of Auburn and towns of Greene, Poland, Lisbon, Livemore Falls and Minot all had officials at Wednesday’s meeting.

Each member received a memorandum pledging support for partnership efforts and Bennett urged them to take it to their town boards and councils to have it adopted. He also urged them to designate one person from each town to sit on a steering committee to look for opportunities. That committee should report back in March, Bennett said.

“March is a good time because that’s when most of us are working on our budgets for the year,” Bennett said. “Maybe it’ll be on our minds a little more. We might be able to find some areas where we need to economize. This could be a way to do that.”

Elmer Berry, Androscoggin County Commission chairman, applauded the meeting.

“I think this movement is mushrooming across the state,” Berry said. “We’ve been striving to get information out from the county, and I think this works well with what we’ve done.”

The county is surveying its cities and towns to find what services should be consolidated. Animal control, emergency dispatch and tax assessing are some areas where the county and local communities could join forces, he said.

But don’t stop there, some members urged. Minot Selectman Stephen French suggested including some towns outside of Androscoggin County.

“We don’t want the county line to become a brick wall,” French said. “We can cooperate with many towns just based on their distance to us. If we say we’re cooperating because there’s strength in numbers, well, that would be even more numbers.”

staylor@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link