Published: May 19, 2008 08:56 pm            

LEWISTON: Study could create sharing mood

Village, town get state shared services grant

The town and village of Lewiston boards were in the same room for a brief moment Monday.

If a recently received state grant pans out, they’ll be sharing more than an occasional meeting.

The two boards will soon pick one out of four contractors to carry out a study between the possible merging of services between the town and village or possibly even consolidating their governments altogether.

“We’ve talked about this for the last eight or 10 years,” Village Mayor Richard Soluri said. He later added, “We’ve felt for a long time that we need to do a total study and that’s what we’re going to do.”

The two municipalities, which already share a common assessor’s office and police department, received word they received a $79,000 state Shared Municipal Services Incentives grant for the study.

The village and town boards met early Monday evening to discuss the shared services grant and the reality that developments on and near the Frontier House on Center Street in the village will add more sewer flow to the town’s Wastewater Pollution Control Center.

They then split ways to hold separate meetings.

At the village meeting, several speakers brought up the forthcoming study. Bob Giannetti, owner of Bob’s Olde Books on Center Street and a candidate in the upcoming elections for Village Board, emphasized how such studies focus heavily on fiscal benefits and less strongly on “soft issues.”

“There’s nothing wrong with fiscal weight but I think we should recognize other factors,” he said.

Former Board Trustee Kenneth Kenney questioned the process of the grant, mentioning that residents should possibly be polled first to see if they’d be interested in consolidations.

Village Engineer Richard San Giacomo said the point of the grant is to look at each department independently and then come back with recommendations. Village trustees assured there would be no consolidation unless residents voted in favor of it in a referendum.

Trustee Ron Winkley, former chief of the Lewiston Police Department, said the police merger was done with the aide of a thorough and comprehensive study funded by the state.

“That’s what made it successful,” he said.

        

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