AUBURN — Councilors on Monday said they didn’t have enough information to approve setting aside $90,000 to pay for a special indoor bus washing facility.

“It’s probably a good idea, but this accelerated process and a number of variables that exist just are not answered,” Councilor Joshua Shea said. “This may be great, but it’s not ready yet.”

Phil Nadeau, chairman of the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee, said they learned last week that Lewiston and Auburn are eligible for a matching federal grant to pay for the bulk of a bus washing facility. The grant, through the Federal Transit Authority’s State of Good Repair Program, would pay 80 percent of the costs. Lewiston and Auburn would each pay about 10 percent.

The deadline to apply for the grant is March 12.

“We were so used to just using those funds to buy buses we never considered that building a bus wash was even possible,” Nadeau said.

He said current estimates put the costs at about $900,000, meaning each city would need to make up to $90,000 available to get the grant.

He’s scheduled to make the same request to the Lewiston City Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

Nadeau said the facility has been on the transit committee’s wish list for several years.

“The numbers that have been projected have been preliminary, and we don’t have a whole lot of detail invested in them yet,” Nadeau said.

But some kind of bus washing facility is becoming necessary.

Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the LATC, said Gillig Corp., the manufacturer of the three newest Citylink buses in the fleet, has urged the committee to wash the buses regularly to help them last longer. Washing away road salts helps keep bus undercarriages and supports from rusting. The buses are currently washed at least once each week during the winter with a power wash, but it only cleans the exterior.

“It’s the undercarriage piece of this that does not get washed,” Nadeau said. “None of the power washing systems we can find are able to do the undercarriage. We have to be able to run a vehicle through a system that has a mechanism that moves water underneath.”

But Auburn councilors said during their premeeting workshop discussion that they couldn’t support the plan. They wanted more details, including business plans for the facility, information on what other vehicles could use the facility and reports on whether the service could be fulfilled by private investors.

“I need a lot more information fleshed out before I can support this,” Councilor Leroy Walker said. “I know it’s not your fault, and you have a quick response time but that’s just how I feel now.”

When it came time to vote on the matter during their regular meeting, they declined to bring it up for a vote. It died without a motion.

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