By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Auburn will take the lead in asking the state for grant money to help combine departments with Lewiston.

But City Manager Pat Finnigan said Thursday that she doesn’t know exactly what she’s asking for.

“That has to be the first thing we have to determine, what the state requires to even consider a grant application,” Finnigan said. “I haven’t given it much thought at this point.”

A joint Lewiston-Auburn task force issued the results from a 14-month study last week, picking out several departments that could be combined for better efficiency, customer service and a small financial savings.

The group urged the City Councils to ask for state help hiring a staff person to lead efforts to combine services.

Councilors from both cities agreed, saying they would ask the state for money. But councilors never said how much money they wanted, who would write the grant or what state fund the money would come from.

The vote wasn’t unanimous, with councilors in both cities saying afterward they felt rushed and pressured into a vote.

It’s not a good idea to hurry grants, according to Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett. Lewiston wrote the grant last year that ended up bringing $45,000 in state money to the Twin Cities to study ways the two could cooperate. The request initially asked for $200,000.

“We ended up hurrying on that grant, and it turns out we didn’t need to,” Bennett said. “Because we hurried, the grant wasn’t as professionally written as it could have been. And that fact could have cost us the grant.”

Lewiston staff isn’t available to write the grant this time, he said. He has a dedicated staff to write grant applications.

“But right now, we’re working on our budget and we need to get that done,” Bennett said.

Finnigan said she has not decided who on her staff will write the grant request.

“But right now, it’s resting with me to make sure it gets done,” Finnigan said.

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