LEWISTON – Voters will not see a landfill management deal on the November ballot after councilors unanimously turned back the plan Tuesday night.

But two councilors defended the decision to discuss the management deal, as did City Administrator Jim Bennett.

A third, Ward 3’s Councilor Lillian O’Brien, warned the crowd attending that the landfill issue was not dead. Lewiston still faces a costly expansion there during the next few years.

“I hope citizens realize this is not a one-shot deal,” she said. “Trash is expensive to deal with.”

Before the meeting started – before councilors had even taken their seats on the stage of the Multi-Purpose Center gymnasium – Bennett said the deal was finished.

“As far as I’m concerned, this issue is now dead,” he said. “The only way it will ever be brought up again is if the members of the council bring it up. Staff will never bring this idea up again.”

The 6-0 against the Casella deal, with Councilor Ron Jean absent, came as a relief for 150 people at the meeting.

They clapped after each councilor voted and cheered the final vote.

The plan would have seen Casella Solid Waste managing the city’s landfill. The Vermont-based company would have paid the city up to $2.5 million the first year, plus a minimum of $800,000 per year in monitoring and host fees. Casella would have been allowed to bring in building and demolition debris from outside of Maine for the next four years.

The deal would have meant more money for the city – up to $100 less in property taxes for the average home over the next 30 years. It would have filled up the usable space at the landfill, including expansions, within that time.

That was the biggest factor for most councilors.

“Where would we be when 30 years goes by?” Councilor Stavros Mendros asked. “In 30 years, that money will be gone. We’ll suddenly have a $1 million hole in our budget that we’ve depended on, and we’d be faced with a huge expense of building a new landfill.”

Other councilors said they feared damage to the city’s image.

“I’d like to promote the city through economic development, rather than trash,” said Ward 6 Councilor Mark Paradis.

But Paradis said the idea of the privatizing the landfill started with councilors, not city staff.

“If there are any fingers being pointed up here tonight, they should be pointed at us, all seven of us on the City Council,” Paradis said.

Ward 2 Councilor Renee Bernier said the idea arose from council efforts to trim city costs without losing services.

“We asked our city administrator to look at avenues where we could save taxes, and this was one idea,” she said. She couldn’t support it in the end, however.

“It’s just the wrong plan,” she said.

Opponents of the deal said afterward they were not finished. They’ve formed a group calling itself “Don’t Dump On ME,” according to Dan Gregoire of Mitchell Street. They intend to fight Casella’s operations in other parts of Maine.

“This all comes down to them bringing in construction debris into Maine,” he said. “It’s not just Lewiston anymore, but all of Maine. And it all begins with construction debris.”

The group will focus its efforts on legislators, according to member Jim Lysen.

“The fact is, we have to deal with this on a statewide basis,” he said. “We can’t solve this one city at a time. We need to have a statewide plan for solid waste.”