LEWISTON — The key to figuring out how to bring more young professionals to the Twin Cities, according to Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte, is to ask the ones who are already here.
“The most important thing you can do is not hear from us but to weigh in,” LaBonte told a group of about 40 young L-A professionals Wednesday night. “Email, tweet, call, come to a meeting, invite people to a conversation over a cup of coffee or a beer at Baxter. Young professionals have to be engaged to tell us what will keep you here. Because what keeps you here will probably attract some new people here as well.”
LaBonte and his colleagues from the Auburn and Lewiston City Councils were the featured guests at a town hall meeting sponsored by YPLAA, the Young Professionals of the Lewiston-Auburn Area. Wednesday’s meeting was part of the group’s “Y-Not” program designed to encourage young adults to go out and get involved in civic life.
They’re an important factor for both cities, LaBonte said.
“Our ability to attract and keep young professionals will make or break Lewiston-Auburn. That’s a fact,” LaBonte said.
Councilors said they were working to create safe, livable neighborhoods in both cities as a draw.
“It’s the way places feel and look that matters,” Auburn Councilor Tizz Crowley said.
It’s also about working together. Lewiston Councilor Mark Cayer said it’s important to realize the Twin Cities are one community.
“I never talk about just one when I’m outside of this area,” he said. “We have to think of it as one. If we don’t commingle and work together, we will never succeed to the potential we could.”
Participants asked the councilors to weigh in on efforts to combine the Twin Cities. Voters in Lewiston and Auburn will go to the polls in June to select six residents to write a new charter.
On Wednesday night, councilors’ opinions ranged. Cayer said the cities could save money by combining responsibilities and reducing staff.
Crowley was more skeptical about potential savings, noting that a 2010 report found significant savings, “but most of those now have gone away,” she said.
Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald said he was confident a merged Lewiston-Auburn would become an economic powerhouse, rivaling and possibly surpassing Portland. Lewiston Councilor Nate Libby said he was excited about the idea.
“It’s kind of exciting if there are opportunities to see savings,” Libby said. “I think that’s very worthwhile. I think there’s an opportunity to rename the community. Maybe it’s Lewiston-Auburn. Maybe it’s Great Falls.”
LaBonte said serious issues would have to be solved first. He noted that Auburn has a special agriculture zoning code that limits housing development in rural areas. That keeps the property values there low and keeps tax bills low for farmers.
Lewiston has no similar zoning code. A combined Twin Cities would have to figure out what would happen to that zoning code.
“That becomes one of the policy debates that would emerge immediately, at least within two years,” LaBonte said. “Do you put in place the zoning from Lewiston or do you continue to protect on one side of the river that farmland?”
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- Coral Breuer speaks during a town hall meeting sponsored by YPLAA, the Young Professionals of the Lewiston-Auburn Area, at the Lewiston Public Library on Wednesday. Breuer recently moved to Lewiston from Ohio.
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- Emmie Jones of Auburn and Colby Michaud of Sabattus participate in a town hall meeting sponsored by YPLAA, the Young Professionals of the Lewiston-Auburn Area, at the Lewiston Public Library on Wednesday.
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- Lewiston City Councilor Nate Libby, left, Auburn Councilor Adam Lee, center, and Auburn Councilor Tizz Crowley participate in a town hall meeting sponsored by YPLAA, the Young Professionals of the Lewiston-Auburn Area, at the Lewiston Public Library on Wednesday.
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