AUBURN — The boards of directors for Pathways and Pottle Hill each voted this week to merge their agencies, creating the new Pathways Inc.

The move, which will take effect Nov. 1, is expected to streamline costs and create more job opportunities for the merged agencies’ customers.

According to Robert Kennelly, executive director of the new Pathways Inc., the missions of the respective agencies were well aligned and the merger creates a larger agency with “more people who have more varied schedules so we can bid on more work and provide more opportunities for work.”

The decision was made to maintain the Pathways name for the new agency because Pathways “has a good name and a good relationship in the community,” Kennelly said, and directors thought it best to maintain that continuity. Pathways has been in business for the past 35 years, Kennelly said, and Pottle Hill for close to 30 years.

The nonprofit headquarters will remain at Pathways’ office at 368 Minot Ave.

Pathways and Pottle Hill, which both provide job support and other support services for people with disabilities, will continue with their shared mission and now, Kennelly said, “some folks who didn’t have work opportunities now have work opportunities.”

For instance, the Pottle Hill firewood program had provided jobs three days a week, he said. Under the merged agency, the firewood program has expanded to five days a week with the purchase of a conveyor belt and firewood dump truck, putting more people to work cutting, splitting and delivering cordwood.

The merged agencies, which now share 110 customers and 65 employees, will have greater control over worker assignments and job schedules, making it easier to satisfy existing janitorial contracts at White Rock Distilleries, Micro Direct Inc., courthouses in Lewiston and Bath, local churches and libraries and, most recently, work at the commissary at the Brunswick Naval Air Station, Kennelly said.

Kennelly, who has served as the former Pathways executive director for the past three and a half years, said it was important to him for employees and customers of the nonprofits to know that the merger combined two agencies, and it was not a move by one agency to take over another.

As plans for the merger progressed during the past year, the joined agencies networked their phone systems and closed Pathways’ Rodman Road facility last June, placing those workers at different jobs. This week, Pathways relocated the Early Learning Center from Chestnut Street to Minot Avenue, closer to the Twarog Center. The relocation will allow children from the Early Learning Center to have more interaction with the elderly at the Twarog Center, which will benefit both customer bases, Kennelly said.

And, the merged agencies now hold their functions at the Green Ladle at Lewiston High School, which has given the school’s culinary program an opportunity to include food preparation and service to the disabled as part of its curriculum.

Although the Pottle Hill board has dissolved, its members have agreed to continue helping organize the annual Pottle Hill Road Race.

In the merger, approved by the Pathways board on Tuesday and the Pottle Hill board Wednesday, two jobs were eliminated, including an executive director position with Pottle Hill. Bill McCoy had been Pottle’s executive director, but retired before the merger. Kennelly said merger plans intend to result in cost savings, but he’ll know better after a full year of operations what that savings will be.

Pathways is funded predominantly by MaineCare reimbursements, but also receives direct funding through its various contracts with the state’s courts, the Department of Defense and various local businesses for its janitorial services. Kennelly would like to see Pathways customers earn more contracts at local businesses, he said. “We need to have people in the community more,” he said, to provide opportunities to help the disabled, but also to provide reliable and reasonably priced services to local businesses in Androscoggin and Oxford counties, and in some areas of Cumberland, Kennebec and Sagadahoc counties.

For more information about contracting with Pathways, contact Kennelly at 795-4085.