By Mark Putnam
Managing editor
CARIBOU — Working under a city charter-enforced deadline, members of the Caribou City Council met Thursday to whittle down the 2013 municipal budget to a level that would likely earn taxpayer acceptance. A public hearing was to be held last night on the matter.
With a majority of department heads in attendance for the Nov. 8 City Council budget workshop session, further spending cuts running the gamut from staff reductions to less expensive road surface treatments were discussed and formally advanced. Just under an hour later, City Manager Austin Bleess had a list of new figures to plug into the department expense and capital expense budgets as the documents need to be ultimately finalized by the start of the new fiscal year — Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013.
Among the cost-saving ideas presented during the most recent workshop were:
• Chip sealing rather than paving several miles of city streets/roads scheduled for upgrades in the coming year;
• reducing positions in the recreation and library departments from full- to part-time with a corresponding reduction in health benefits;
• seeking $50,000 in grant money to help replace the library roof, estimated at $130,000;
• holding off a planned replacement of a city-owned ambulance;
• requesting payment in lieu of taxes from the Aroostook Band of Micmacs;
• soliciting donations from contractors and consulting engineers at the airport to offset its $175,000 budget;
• reducing the number of street lights in the city by 20 percent;
• accessing lower cost supplies through a more aggressive bidding process;
• asking owners of commercial parking lots to pay toward plowing and lighting;
• negotiating with the water district for lower hydrant rental rates; and
• using more efficient LED lights where appropriate.
Public Works Director Dave Ouellette agreed with most of the proposed changes for road maintenance but asked the council not to severely reduce spending on upkeep. “We’ve worked hard to maintain our roads. I’d hate to see it go away. It’s the first thing people notice when they come here,” he said.
Caribou Police Chief Mike Gahagan warned councilors that eliminating street lights along Caribou streets and around parking areas would likely lead to more crime in the city.
Mayor Ken Murchison thanked the managers for their hard work on cutting expenditures and finding cost effective changes in their departments but cautioned them on leaving enough in their budgets to do a quality job for the citizens of Caribou. “We don’t want to set ourselves up to fail,” he said.
Bleess said he would update the working budget document on the city’s website so that councilors and residents would have access to the latest information before attending the Nov. 13 session.
Caribou’s approved 2012 municipal budget was $8.9 million while the 2013 spending package, as currently proposed, is just under $9.5 million.
