LEWISTON – The City Council is considering a local professor’s request to form a relationship with Chechnya’s Starye Atagi – pronounced Star-yee At-a-kee – and make it the second international town to be called Lewiston’s sister city.

Barry Rodrigue, an assistant professor from the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, asked the City Council on Tuesday to make Starye Atagi a sister city. At first glance, the war-torn town of 12,000 is an unlikely candidate for such status. It features bombed out buildings, devastated industrial mills and a population in desperate need of the basics. Its schools are overcrowded. Its hospitals are loaded with people suffering from the aftereffects of war. But Rodrigue believes that Lewiston, which rebuilt itself after a major industrial slide, can help Starye Atagi rebuild after war.

City councilors listened to Rodrigue’s presentation Tuesday but took no action. On Wednesday, council President Tom Peters said councilors are taking the request under advisement. He and others have concerns about the region and what a formal relationship would mean for Lewiston

“The last thing I want to do is embroil the City Council in any political or controversial kind of stuff if we don’t need to,” he said.

Peters plans to meet with City Administrator Jim Bennett today to discuss city issues, including the sister city proposal.

Although he didn’t get an immediate yes vote Tuesday night, Rodrigue said he was encouraged that the council was seeking more information.

“I don’t think this (the sister city proposal) is involving the city in anything unsavory,” he said. “It’s about people-to-people connections.”