By Scott Taylor, Staff Writer

Bus officials were sending a past due letter to the state Friday, asking for the release of $300,000 in federal transit funds.

The money, part of the annual operations for the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee, has been tied up by bureaucracy and politics since last December.

The committee operates CityLink, the public bus system in Lewiston and Auburn. They pay Western Maine Transportation $748,000 annually to operate the system, according to Transit Coordinator Marsha Bennett.

Revenues from riders pay for about $81,000 of that budget, and government dollars make up the rest, including $429,000 in Federal Transit Authority grants. That money is distributed to Maine transit programs through the Maine Department of Transportation.

Bennett said the committee hasn’t received a share of their grant since December 2005. In all, the MDOT owes local transit $310,000.

“We’re just a pass-through to Western Maine Transportation,” Bennett said. The bus company has received about half its annual budget and has been paying operations with a line of credit.

“Someone is going to end up paying interest charges on that, and it’ll probably be us,” Bennett said.

Bennett said delays in Congress kept the money from being distributed early in 2005. The Federal Transit Authority also waited to give the money to Maine until the state had settled some compliance and permitting issues.

“It was frustrating, early on, but now it’s becoming a burden,” Bennett said.

And it’s wrong, according to Phil Nadeau, chairman of the transit committee and deputy administrator for the city of Lewiston.

“It’s not fair that Western Maine has to wait,” Nadeau said. “They’ve been a great partner to local transit, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they’re treated fairly. It’s just not good business.”

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