Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 M AY 2 9 , 2 0 1 7 22,912 people, ranking it fi fth. But Auburn has almost twice the land area of Lewiston. Only a handful of U.S. municipalities have merged to date, including Dover-Foxcroft, partly because of the long and detailed process to get a referendum onto the ballot, and partly because of the polar stances between those who do and don't want it. ere already are pro and con advocacy groups in the twin cities, One LA and the Coalition to Oppose Lewiston-Auburn Consolidation. Even those who are neutral question how the lead-up to the potential merger is being handled. Poliquin says that merging the cities is "the brain- child of a small group of businessmen who don't represent the grassroots of the community. It's top down rather than bottom up." Others, like Chip Morrison, secretary of the Joint Charter Commission charged with creating a merger plan and naming the combined city, says the two neighbors already share a lot. at includes a mutual agreement to protect the Lake Auburn watershed, which provides drinking water for both cities, and trading off maintenance of the James B. Longley Bridge, which connects Main Street in downtown Lewiston to Court Street in downtown Auburn. "We have so much more in common than dif- ferences," says Morrison, former president and CEO of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and former city manager of Auburn. He is now the business development offi cer at Androscoggin Bank in Lewiston. He also notes that the cities' boundary may be as murky as merging some of their other services. e boundary is somewhere in the Androscoggin River. Morrison estimates there are 3,000 businesses in the two communities. Maureen Aube, vice president of operations at the chamber, which has remained neutral on the issue so far, says the organization has no fi gures on how many total business owners, including chamber members, live in Lewiston and Auburn and thus would be eligible to vote. Even those who don't live in either city but who do business in it have strong opinions, like Peter Rinck, CEO of Rinck Advertising, and a 2014 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year. He moved from a building in Auburn to Lewiston in February to double his space, bringing with him 37 employees. "We are highly pro," Rinck says. "With twin cities, it's an expensive vanity to have two of everything. Taxes continue to go up and services continue to be cut in both places and throughout the United States." He says some of the expected savings from a merged city could be returned to taxpayers, but he'd like to see them reinvested in the school system or the beautifi cation of downtown. "I run a business and I want to decrease redun- dancies and increase effi ciencies," Rinck says. " at's how you invest and grow. It's a chance for L/A to take a remarkably aggressive approach. We'll create a bold symbol that we're a progressive community." Marching toward the merger e detailed process to get a merger referendum on the ballot is covered under the Maine Revised Statutes 30-A, Subsection 2152. First a petition must be presented to get the initial vote to explore the referendum. at happened in 2014, when the Joint Charter Commission was voted in by the necessary 1,000 votes in each city, as were voters' choices in each city for the three members to rep- resent them on the commission, which began its work on July 7, 2014. After a series of public meetings and a report on the data behind the merger from Rochester, N.Y., consulting fi rm CGR, which was hired by the community governments, Morrison says the com- mission's own merger plan report is 99% complete, waiting only on the city name, to be announced June 8. After that there will be public hearings solic- iting comments about the plan in both cities, and when those meetings are completed the referendum will be drafted for the Nov. 7 ballot. City names in the running — and he emphasizes nothing has been decided yet, and the commission has received thousands of suggestions — include combinations of Lewiston Auburn, names derived from "Andro" (Androscoggin County, where both cities lie) and Great Falls, the name of the waterfalls separating the two cities. P H O T O / L O R I VA L I G R A C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » F O C U S L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue This is a very important issue to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. to be decided by the voters. … [Merging the cities is] the brainchild of a small group of businessmen who don't represent the grassroots of the community. — Paul Poliquin Paul's Clothing & Shoe Store Inc., Lewiston Paul Poliquin, former Lewiston city councilor and owner of Paul's Clothing & Shoe Store Inc. at 281 Lisbon St. in Lewiston, says he's neutral about the pending referendum and merger of Lewiston and Auburn, and that the voters should decide.

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