LEWISTON – Proponents of a joint health committee for the Twin Cities will look for public input this week.

Officials from both cities and area hospitals are proposing a health committee to deal with public health issues more effectively. They announced their plan last month and presented it to both city councils.

Now they’ve scheduled two public meetings, at 6 p.m. Thursday in Lewiston City Hall and 6 p.m. Dec. 20 in Auburn Hall.

“There hasn’t been a lot of concern since we went public, because we’re not proposing to create a new department or hire any additional staff,” said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston’s deputy city administrator. “But the only way to be sure is to invite the public in and see what they say.”

The Twin Cities have no single way to distribute information about public health issues, such as planning for pandemic outbreaks or health education. The two hospitals handle some functions, such as setting up flu shot clinics, and area non-profits handle others.

They tend to duplicate some efforts and miss others, however.

Organizers are recommending that Nadeau act as liaison between the committee and both cities. The committee would coordinate planning and programs and the cities would become the main distribution point for getting information out to the public.

Nadeau said he’d like to present the plan to both city councils early in 2008.

“They’ll have to vote on whether they want it or not,” Nadeau said. “And before they can decide, they need to know what the public thinks. So that’s what we’ll start trying to gauge on Thursday.”