The Caribou City Council heard the final round of departmental budget requests and debated construction approvals on its police station project Monday night.
The city’s total budget proposal for 2025 includes expenses of $12.9 million, with proposed capital requests totaling $1.9 million and anticipated revenue of $12.2 million.
The public presentations are phase one of Caribou’s budget process. The city council and manager will next discuss potential adjustments, and a public hearing will take place during the March 10 council meeting. Councilors will vote on capital expenses on March 17.
Caribou Police Chief Corey Saucier requested a total of $2.7 million for 2025, an increase of 32 percent over last year’s budgeted $2.08 million. As with most other departments, one of the largest increases involves health insurance, up 21 percent from last year at $413,660.
Salary costs are estimated to be $1.6 million, up nearly $500,000 from 2024, because the department hopes to hire two officers and two dispatchers, Saucier said. Fully staffed, the department would include 12 officers and four dispatchers.
Increases are also expected in workers compensation, up 29 percent to $29,961; vehicle insurance, up 37 percent to $9,813; and Social Security and retirement, up more than 40 percent at $130,783 and $200,629, respectively.
Saucier also requested an additional $10,000 for training, for a total budget of $43,000, mostly due to required travel.
“Unfortunately, all the training is way south of Caribou,” Saucier said. “We can get training up here. This issue is that the instructors are not going to come up unless there’s 18, 20, 22 people that they’re going to instruct.”
Needed instruction includes training for the department’s dog, Ace, field training officer education and yearly certification courses such as arrest procedures. Some officers also want to train to become instructors, and having local instructors could benefit other Aroostook County law enforcement agencies, Saucier said.
Police budget decreases include gas, liability insurance, an animal control officer that was taken off the budget and medical test expenses.
Capital expense requests included $65,183 for a new cruiser to replace an older model and approximately $10,000 as the city’s portion of bulletproof vest replacement. The department ordered 17 vests last year at a cost of $19,550. A grant will cover half the cost, the chief said.
City Clerk Danielle Brisette requested a general assistance budget of $52,571, largely unchanged except for a 4 percent salary increase.
City Manager Penny Thompson presented the remainder of departmental budgets as follows: general government, $910,356; economic development, $452,101; health and municipal buildings, $75,726; tax assessment, $286,676; emergency management, $17,492; airport, $72,801; trailer park, $1,834; cemeteries, $7,575; insurance and retirement, $145,500; and all other unclassified expenses, $30,675.
An update on the upcoming Caribou police station building project drew considerable discussion on procedure.
The Public Safety Building Committee has met regularly and looked at the floor plan and design aspects of the project, Mayor Courtney Boma said. The construction documents should be ready by the target date of March 15 and will be brought for council approval at the March 17 meeting.
The council was scheduled to review those documents on Feb. 24, Councilor Dan Bagley said. He asked if the documents would be available for that meeting.
The documents won’t be ready then, but will be presented March 17, Boma said.
The council would lose a vote if the Feb. 24 review process was skipped, and the council has the authority to approve the construction plans on the city’s behalf, Bagley said. He objected to the procedure.
The vote will take place when the documents are ready, Councilor Joan Theriault said.
Councilors had voted on an amended contract specifying the March 15 document deadline, Boma said. Thompson said she would speak with city attorney Rick Solman to check on proper procedure.
In other business, councilors approved a bid from Hayley Ward Inc. of Bangor for $166,600 to complete work at the Caribou Public Library, part of the Maine Connectivity Authority Connectivity Hubs Grant the library received in 2024.
The project will renovate the library’s second-floor loft into a larger space that will include a public media center with 10 computers, meeting and conference spaces, updated windows, fire safety improvements and an exterior elevator so the space will be accessible to people with disabilities.
The work is expected to finish around August, city records stated.
The next regular city council meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, at the Caribou Municipal Building.
