By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A July bomb threat has pointed up the need for better safety policies for Twin Cities bus services.

Managers of Citylink on Thursday criticized the lack of written rules for emergencies on city buses.

“I think we have a responsibility to come up with something, a better plan,” said Dick Metivier, Lewiston’s finance director and a member of the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee. That group manages the Twin Cities’ Citylink bus service.

Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the group, said she is scheduled to meet next Thursday with officials from local bus companies and school bus operators, local fire and police departments, the Androscoggin County sheriff and state police.

She hopes a concrete set of rules will come out of that.

A local radio station received an anonymous call about 11:22 a.m. July 29 urging people to “watch the news tonight for a bus to be blown up by a bunch of white boys.” That threat persuaded bus company officials to shut down the system for about 90 minutes.

Radio station employees called 911, who notified Western Maine Transit. Bennett said she was called by mistake. She’s listed as an emergency contact for Vermont Transit’s Lewiston bus station.

“That’s one of the first things that has to be changed,” said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston assistant city administrator and a member of the committee.

Western Maine Transit had all buses meet at Great Falls Plaza in Auburn for an inspection. The inspectors didn’t find anything and the buses were all returned to service about 90 minutes later.

Bennett said she was pleased with the response and the speed of the inspections.

It wasn’t until later that she began to question the decision to have buses carrying potential bombs travel through downtown and congregate in one place.

“If there is a bomb, there goes all your buses,” Bennett said. “That didn’t even occur to anybody.”