LEWISTON – Combining services in the Twin Cities would lead to “real savings” – but recommendations need to be made soon, says the co-chairman of a group formed to find those savings.

Peter Garcia told the Citizens Commission on Lewiston-Auburn Cooperation that it needs to show success soon. At a meeting of the group Thursday, he urged members to finalize their recommendation to share assessing services between the two cities by next month and present it to the city councils.

“It’s time to move on this now, not talk some more,” Garcia said. “Now is the time to take that first step and show that the idea can work. I’m afraid that if we don’t, all of our studies and all the reports we’ve done will wind up forgotten in some filing cabinet.”

Efforts to share services have taken some public hits over the past few weeks. Auburn councilors Monday said they were skeptical about the group’s assessing plan, and Lewiston councilors Tuesday argued against creating a joint master plan for the Twin Cities’ downtown area.

But there’s plenty of life in the concept, if councilors want to listen, Garcia said. The group originally forecast $2.6 million in savings by sharing services, but recent audits of their work increased those estimates slightly, to $2.7 million.

One aspect of the plan, a joint assessing department, would eventually save up to $70,000 between the two cities.

Coordinator Kay Rand will formalize the group’s recommendation by its next meeting, 7 p.m. Oct. 9 in Auburn Hall. Then, Garcia said, the plans should go the Lewiston and Auburn councils.

“We need to start with one small proposal and work from there,” he said. “We need to get them to decide on a policy decision: Is it a good idea to combine government services if it saves money? And if we want to be successful, I don’t think we need to complicate the issue. We need to give them something.”

However, Auburn City Manager Glenn Aho suggested the two cities adopt identical assessing programs and building codes, but continue to operate them independently.

“Then we could begin working on real savings,” Aho told the commission. “We don’t need a bigger staff housed in one city when we could have employees on both sides there to back each other up. And we could do it all without worrying about which city is in charge or who gets paid in what way.”

Lewiston and Auburn groups have talked about sharing services almost as long as the cities have existed.

Twin Cities’ officials began formally talking about the effort in 1996, with the formation of the L-A Together board. That group issued a report that was largely forgotten until 2004 when L-A mayors (and brothers) Lionel Guay and Normand Guay, respectively, formed a new group, the Mayors’ Commission on L-A Cooperation. That group, too, issued a study, calling for combined police, public works and back office operations by 2011. It also called for a permanent commission, with a staff coordinator, to guide cooperative efforts.

The current commission began working last year, and picked up a $152,900 grant from the state’s Fund for Local and Regional Efficiency to pay for their coordinator and to fund studies. The grant is due to expire this fall.