LEWISTON — The City Council will give Casella Solid Waste an additional four months to clear state regulatory hurdles and build an automated recycling facility on River Road.

Councilors voted Tuesday night to extend the deadline for Casella to begin construction on the recycling center from 10 months to one year, once the lease is signed. They also agreed to give the company eight months to build the facility, once the permits are in hand, an increase from six months in the original lease.

Brian Oliver, Casella’s vice president of Maine operations, told councilors that the company expects the state permitting process through the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to take longer than originally expected.

“I had a concern, based on discussions with our permits and compliance engineer, that 10 months may not be adequate,” Oliver said. “We thought that rather than come back and ask for more time, we thought we should ask right up front. If we thought it was going to take 12 months, we should ask for that.”

Oliver said recent experience constructing a similar facility in Rutland, Vt., makes asking for more time to build the facility sensible.

“We felt that six months was probably not adequate to order the equipment, get it in, construct it all and get it operational,” Oliver said.

The solid waste company plans to build a 15,000-square-foot automated recycling center south of the city’s landfill at the transfer station on River Road this summer. The facility would replace the city’s recycling shed.

The center would take recyclables collected from communities in Maine, sort them and sell them on the commodities market.

Dan Gregoire of 19 Mitchell St. said he was still concerned about the city having a close relationship with Casella. Gregoire was one of the residents who opposed making any deal with the solid waste company.

“I just want to say that from my experience watching them, you have to keep everything Casella does under a microscope,” Gregoire said.

According to the terms of the 20-year lease, the city would keep ownership of the land, the recycling building and all machines Casella installs. The company would pay the city $5,638 per month — $67,656 per year — in addition to an entry fee of $5 per truck.

The company would also pay the city a fee on every truck using the facility and would take over $90,000 worth of city recycling responsibilities. City staff estimates the facility will bring in $250,000 in new revenues or savings for the city.

City Administrator Ed Barrett said the city and the company negotiated other, smaller changes to the lease, clarifying what kind of insurance the company must keep and adding some definitions.

City attorney Martin Eisenstein said one change clarifies a requirement that the company maintain a $500,000 surety bond that would be paid to the city if the company defaults on the lease. Under the new language, the city would automatically be paid that bond and would not have to take Casella to court.

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