LEWISTON – Pine Tree Waste would move its operation from Mechanic Falls to Plourde Parkway, according to a deal offered by the company’s parent, Casella Solid Waste.

The waste hauler would move to the KTI Biofuels Facility, using the space to store its empty trucks. The current Plourde Parkway operation – sorting construction and demolition debris – would shrink but would continue.

Councilors and a group of interested Lewiston-Auburn residents listened as Casella officials explained their proposal at a Tuesday night workshop. Listeners included Auburn Mayor John Jenkins, three Auburn councilors and Auburn Public Works Director Bob Belz.

Councilors made no decision Tuesday, but put the item on their Feb. 3 agenda. City Administrator James Bennett suggested councilors take the next few days to decide if they wanted to begin negotiating with Casella to make the deal possible or not.

“That’s a perfectly valid choice, to just say you’re not interested,” Bennett said.

The company wants to make the Plourde Parkway lot, which is leased from the city, Pine Tree Waste’s Central Maine base of operations. The site would be home to 20 trash trucks, which would leave empty each morning to collect trash in around the area and return empty each night. The trucks would not bring any new solid waste to Lewiston, according to Brian Oliver, Casella’s vice president of Maine operations.

Casella currently uses the site to sort about 300 tons of wood, concrete, metal and other debris from building and demolition sites. Most of that debris, 75 percent of it, comes from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Once sorted, that debris is sent to other facilities. Wood is burned in energy generation plants and mills and the concrete, plaster and metal goes to Casella’s Old Town landfill.

But Oliver said the company wants to cut the debris load on Plourde in half and said the company would agree to bring no debris from outside of Maine once a new sorting facility in Westbrook opens, if the Pine Tree deal goes through.

But residents complained they could never trust Casella.

“I am against Casella for anything they do in Lewiston,” said Joseph Roy of 9 Venise Ave. “They play with words, and they make a lot of money. I don’t trust them.”

Others said they were concerned about more traffic because of the operation.

Lewiston officials didn’t address comments made by Auburn city councilors at their Monday night meeting. Then, Auburn Mayor John Jenkins said he was concerned that the deal would hurt Auburn and urged residents and councilors to show up in Lewiston on Tuesday night.

Mayor Larry Gilbert did pointedly confirm that the Casella deal would have no impact on Auburn.

“Casella is not looking to enter into a contract with Auburn – they’re talking to Lewiston,” Gilbert said.