Staff Writer
FORT KENT — The small community of Connor seemingly found its way to the discussion’s focal point during the March 2 Aroostook County Commissioners’ meeting for the unrelated topics of fire, ambulance and library services. The Aroostook County Commissioners and city of Caribou officials have and continue to work together utilizing select city-owned services in Caribou to meet the needs of those in the Unorganized Territories just beyond the city’s borders, which means contracts between the two municipal groups are often revisited during the annual budgeting process.
The commissioners approved a one-year ambulance service contract with Caribou for the Unorganized Townships of both Madawaska Lake (for $1,165.50) and Connor (for $4,452), but the fire protection contract between Caribou and Connor requites a bit more negotiation after the contract’s proposed price tag increased from roughly $19,000 to about $28,000.
The reason for the steep monetary hike is attributed to the valuation of Connor, which increased substantially during the state’s re-assessment of the township, as explained by Aroostook County Administrator Douglas Beaulieu.
There are two factors involved when city of Caribou officials determine how much to charge an outside community for fire protection: 50 percent of the price is derived from valuation and the other 50 percent is derived from how many people are in the community.
“It was proposed that [the cost] would go up by as much as 50 percent and that’s beyond [the County of Aroostook’s] capacity to pay, even though the service has been and continues to be exceptional,” Beaulieu explained.
City and county officials are currently working toward a solution to the fire protection contract and plan to meet again in the near future.
As Beaulieu informed the commissioners during the recent meeting, library services between Caribou and Connor have officially ceased. Previously, commissioners included around $400 in the annual budget for an Unorganized Territory library subsidy, paid to Caribou by the county, to enable residents living in Connor to utilize the city’s library.
The Caribou Library Board of Trustees voted to eliminate the per-capita stipend and instead establish a non-resident annual fee of $30 per person and $40 per family.
Beaulieu and the commissioners discussed the possibility of reimbursing Unorganized Territory residents for the fee, but decided against it after deliberations.
The commissioners also awarded a bid for two Chevrolet Impalas to Valley Auto of Fort Kent, after they submitted the low bid of $41,545.10.
The commissioners also discussed two requests for tax abatement hearings. In both cases, the properties individuals were seeking abatement for had been tax acquired by the respective towns and, as such, the individuals no longer owned the properties (and there wasn’t anything to abate). The commissioners agreed to send the parties a letter indicating that because their properties had been forfeited they would not be holding a hearing.
The next meeting of the Aroostook County Commissioners will take place tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Caribou.
