LEWISTON — The Twin Cities have a lot to gain by figuring out how to continue collecting trash together next year.

Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert and Auburn Mayor Dick Gleason hosted a summit to discuss working together on a new solid waste contract, which could include recycling.

Lewiston and Auburn have shared their solid waste collection contract for seven years. Currently, Casella subsidiary Pine Tree Waste collects trash for both cities, then delivers it to the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. incinerator in Auburn. Once the trash has been incinerated, the ash is disposed of in Lewiston’s landfill.

But that contract runs out in July 2011 and officials are expecting the costs to the cities to rise, by as much as $500,000 per year for Lewiston.

“We’ve had a good price for seven years, and we don’t think it has kept up with (Pine Tree Waste’s) costs,” Lewiston Public Works Director David Jones said. “Basically, they’ve been eating it for the last few years, so we can expect them to try and make it up next time.”

Jones said he hopes to begin taking bids from solid waste contractors in October, and Lewiston City Administrator Ed Barrett said that’s a must.

“If I’m going to have to include a $500,000 cost increase into my budget next year, I don’t want to find out about it on May 1,” Barrett said. “I want as much time as possible to figure out what’s going to happen.”

Auburn has a citizen committee that’s been discussing the same subject. Chairman Dom Casavant said the group is scheduling meetings with several trash and recycling handlers, including Pine Tree Waste and Portland’s Eco-Maine.

He invited Lewiston representatives to those meetings, and they agreed to attend. The committee meets at 5 p.m. every second and fourth Tuesday in Auburn Hall.

The mayors agreed to gather for a second summit on Sept. 14 to discuss their progress.

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