I attended an Auburn City Council meeting on Oct. 1 to speak about an agenda item. I grew up in Lewiston-Auburn, but now live in New Hampshire. For me, the round trip to attend the meeting was more than 300 miles.

That’s no big deal, except when the item came to the floor, the mayor said there was no point in discussing it, because the Auburn council was going to go with the decision that the Lewiston City Council had already made.

Again, no big deal, except that myself and several others had come to present input to impact the council’s decision, not knowing that their decision had already been made for them by the Lewiston council.

Here’s the main concern citizens of Auburn should have: There is a bill about to go before the council that would create a position of joint town manager of Lewiston-Auburn. People should think about that. If the Auburn City Council bows down to the Lewiston Council, what’s going to happen when the same town manager has the ability to impact decisions that affect both cities?

Wouldn’t anyone in that position most likely lean toward the group with the biggest pocketbook?

Finally, I suggest if people accept one joint town manager, how about one mayor, one council, one police department, one fire department? Better yet, how about one city – Lewiston/Little Lewiston?

Charles A. Hildreth, Milford, N.H.

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