AUBURN – Lewiston and the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. have started talking, with an eye toward extending their ash-for-trash deal.
“We’re very optimistic at this point,” said MMWAC Executive Director Joseph Kazar. “Just what we’ll be able to work out, though, remains to be seen.”
The deal allows Lewiston to take its trash to MMWAC to be incinerated and allows the plant to dump ash in Lewiston’s landfill for discounts all around. Both groups charge discounted fees.
The agreement is set to expire in April 2007.
Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett said earlier this month that the fees Lewiston charges might go up to help the city pay for a $7.5 million expansion of the landfill. Those costs would be passed along to the 12 communities that make up the waste corporation, Kazar said. That caused an uproar among some of the member towns.
Thursday, Kazar downplayed those initial fears.
“There’s always a heightened sense of tensions prior to negotiations,” Kazar said. “I think we’re beginning to work through that.”
Kazar and Bennett are scheduled to continue discussions Tuesday. They couldn’t estimate when they’d reach an agreement.
“The good thing now is that we can work together and work out a deal that works for everybody, across the board,” Bennett said.
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