LEWISTON – Long-standing institutions, relative newcomers and lots of familiar faces shared economic achievement awards from the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council.

• Sisters of Charity Health System was recognized for more than 100 years of investment in the well-being of the community and its recent initiatives to continue and expand that care.

Last October, SOCHS opened St. Mary’s Center for Joint Replacement, the first center dedicated to joint replacement surgery and services. The new wing features 16 private rooms, designed in part by previous joint replacement patients.

It also recently completed the Nutrition Center in the former Wallace School in downtown, that provides nutrition-related services and guidance for the community. It brings Lots to Garden, the St. Mary’s food pantry and a new demonstration kitchen all under one roof. The hospital also intends to double the size of its emergency room and establish a new ambulatory center in Auburn over the next year.

• Estes Express Line opened a new distribution center in Lewiston near the Maine Turnpike just a year ago. The 77-year-old company needed a bigger location than its former home in Scarborough offered and found it on River Road with a 37-door, 15,000-square-foot facility that now employs 38.

Estes was brought to area through a collaborative effort with the city of Lewiston and LAEGC. Once the growth council found the right location, the city helped find a developer and quickly shepherded the project through the regulatory process. The time between ground breaking and ribbon cutting was nine months.

• Bisson Transportation and its affiliate, LynxUS, were the first tenants in the Auburn Industrial park. The company – one of the oldest transportation firms in Maine – brought its freight, brokerage and yard services division to Auburn last year in a 103,000-square-foot building. The facility is a warehouse and distribution hub for products destined for Maine’s many paper mills and other clients within the state and away.

The company also opened a heavy-duty truck maintenance and repair facility on Poland Road. Long-term, the company hopes to expand its distribution center to 300,000 square feet.

• Building Solutions, helps clients such as Toddle Inn, World Harbor and Western Maine Transportation Services, plan their infrastructure to meet their needs. The company provides planning, permitting, design, engineering, construction and other services to complete turnkey projects. Headquartered in Oxford, it opened a satellite office in Auburn. The company was lauded for its dogged performance and showing the world Auburn is open for business.

• Maine Oxy was recognized for being a good company that became a great company. Already a strong local business that provided sales and service to industrial- and specialty-gas consumers, Maine Oxy then launched a metal works school to teach employees how to weld and blacksmith. Now the company has a 40-foot van retrofitted as a mobile classroom, taking the New England School of Metalwork across the Northeast to teach these in-demand skills. It was cited for being a world-class company, operating locally.

• WGME-13 received the Joint Economic Achievement Award, selected collaboratively by the two cities. The news station was lauded for its partnership with the Twin Cities through its news coverage, community sponsorships and commitment to the “L-A: It’s Happening Here!” branding campaign.

The news station donates about $25,000 of advertising each month airing branded campaign messages about the arts, health care and education. It has been committed to the LAEGC campaign for four years.

The station is producing and plans to air this fall a special half hour program on the Twin Cities.

– Carol Coultas