Staff Writer
The City of Caribou is slated to be the location of the 2008 Maine County Commissioners’ Association’s annual meeting, according to Dou Beaulieu, county administrator. Beaulieu made the announcement during the Aroostook County Commissioners meeting last week in Fort Kent.
The meeting is usually held in mid-September and is expected to attract about 300 people, which should boost the local economy, Beaulieu said.
In other business during the Jan. 23 session, the county administrator reported that the state sent $32,000 for upgrades to the Caribou courthouse’s elevators to make them fully handicapped accessible. Beaulieu said that the work on the elevators has been completed.
The commissioners hired a new part-time deputy sheriff and re-commissioned six others. The panel also approved the hiring of a part-time victim witness advocate, Yue Ying Wang, (cq) for the district attorney’s office in Presque Isle.
Doug Bell, a Caribou police officer, was hired a part-time deputy sheriff to assist the county in serving papers issued by the court, according to Beaulieu. The commissioners also re-commissioned Forest Dudley, Vance Palmer, Kris Malmborg and Mitchell Wheeler as full-time deputy sheriffs. James Caron and Kevin Farrar were recommissioned as part-time sheriffs.
An emergency preparedness plan was approved for the Caribou courthouse, which is planned to cover any type of emergency that requires immediate evacuation of the buildings. Such emergencies include bomb threats or hostage situations, according to Beaulieu.
Similar plans, which are separate for evacuation plans for fires, also will be required for the Registry of Deeds building in Fort Kent and for the superior and district courts and county jail in Houlton.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Caribou courthouse.
