LEWISTON – A deal with Casella Solid Waste to manage the city’s landfill deserves to be on the November ballot, City Administrator Jim Bennett said.

“The real question for the community is, are you willing to save some money in order to let someone else operate it and take some more waste into the community?” Bennett said Tuesday.

“There are advantages and disadvantages to that. Ultimately, it’s a decision the people in the community need to make.”

Bennett and company officials said Tuesday morning that a proposed management deal for the city’s landfill is a simple business arrangement. Lewiston gets a private company to manage the landfill and pay for future expansions. Casella gets room to expand its New England operation and provide a station for debris on its way elsewhere.

“You will not see a one-sided victory on an endeavor like this,” said Brian Oliver, regional vice president for Casella.

The City Council could decide next week whether to put the management deal on the November ballot. The agreement would have Casella pay the city up to $2.5 million the first year, plus pay a minimum of $800,000 per year in monitoring and host fees. Casella would also take over the KTI Biofuels incineration facility off Plourde Parkway and convert it into a sorting facility for construction and demolition debris within four years.

Based on a city task force’s financial models, the deal would give Lewiston about $47 million over 30 years. That would be enough to take about $100 off of the average property tax bill.

But it would mean a drastically shorter life for the landfill. The agreement would leave the landfill full at the end of 30 years. That same space, which includes existing landfill cells and years worth of expansion, would last the city for 620 years at current use rates.

The deal has sparked opposition, with more than 100 people crowding City Hall Monday night to urge the task force reviewing the plan to put off its decision.

Landfill growth

Delays would cost the city money, Bennett said. Lewiston is about four years away from running out of space at the landfill. Two expansions have been permitted, but the city needs to submit engineering and design plans to the state before it can begin building them. The expansions will cost about $3 million, paid either by Casella or by the city.

Bennett said the city needs to begin paying for those designs next spring if it hopes to expand the landfill in time.

“Whether we pay for that expansion or Casella does, it needs to be settled once and for all,” Bennett said.

Casella officials defended the company’s track record, saying they’d worked with residents and municipal officials everywhere the company operates. Don Meagher, manager of planning and development, said the company has a good relationship with most.

“Solid waste and particularly landfills are inherently controversial,” Meagher said. “We are involved in an essential service that is unpopular, and in every community that we operate, there is going to be local opposition.”

Bennett said any deal Lewiston makes with Casella would be different.

“We would own the landfill, and that allows us greater leeway to dictate the terms,” Bennett said. “We get more say because we are the owners, as opposed to just the place where the business is located.”