By Lisa Wilcox
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — City-owned parking lots were yet again the main topic of discussion at Caribou’s City Council meeting held on Sept. 9 in Council Chambers.
Several Caribou residents and business owners spoke about the lots during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Robert Fern, a property owner on Water Street, began the comments, offering to purchase the city-owned parking lot on that street. It was established that that particular parking lot is owned partially by the city with the remainder owned by Dead River and Aroostook County Federal Savings & Loan.
Cheryl St. Peter and attorney Patrick Bennett, both building owners in the downtown mall, were the next speakers about the issue. They addressed the proposed two-hour parking limit in the downtown lots with the option for citizens to purchase an annual parking pass for $120.
“I think there’s a sense that we’re all in this together,” Bennett said, “we all want this town to grow. But I think the business people in the downtown feel that they’ve been singled out. It will destroy the sense of cohesion and community unity that we’ve always had in our downtown. It will punish office workers with tickets if they don’t buy a pass, but the people who park after hours will not be affected.”
Bennett continued his remarks by pointing out that he believes the city will incur additional municipal costs for police officers to have to spend the time patrolling the lots, looking for parking violators.
“This is going to deter investment in downtown because of how foolish this will be regarded. Every time this shows up in the news, we don’t look like we’re progressing,” Bennett remarked.
Caribou citizens and landowners Norma Milton, Brian Bickford and Seth Williams were the last to speak, all expressing their concern over the city’s plans for the lots.
“If this decision had been made months ago, would you have gotten the award you got naming you a business friendly community?” Bickford, a Water Street business owner, asked.
During council’s discussion of the issue, Councilor Phil McDonough suggested that the original motion to sell the parking lots be rescinded and the issue be tabled until another workshop could be held for council to discuss the parking fees issue and the possibility of the city maintaining some of the lots and selling others.
“This item has to die eventually,” commented Councilor Aaron Kouphot. “It’s gotten to the point of ridiculous. You are absolutely penalizing workers. You’re going to hamper downtown development. Nobody is spending more than two hours downtown from 8 to 5 other than business owners and their employees. So you’re charging the business owners and their employees. You’re going to force businesses out of Caribou. You’re going to stop people from wanting to come in to Caribou. I would move that we get rid of this agenda item. We don’t need any more workshops. We’ve beat the issue to death.”
Councilor David Martin agreed with McDonough, countering that more discussion was needed.
“We have seven parking lots. We don’t need seven parking lots,” Martin said. “I think we should ask the movie theater if they want control of their parking lot. The city owns only a portion of the Water Street parking lot, but has been plowing it. Some of these, we should get rid of.”
Discussion on the issue concluded with the council passing McDonough’s motion to table the issue until a workshop could be held.
Council then conducted public hearings to send the following charter amendments to referendum vote in November.
• Amend the charter to allow City Council terms to start on the first business day of year, rather than the first Monday as the charter reads currently.
• Amend the charter to allow councilors to receive all, a portion, or none of their pay during the year, rather than the all or nothing option the charter allows for now.
• Amend the charter to allow the city from operating on a calendar year to a fiscal year of July 1 through June 30.
• Amend the charter to allow people who are delinquent on their property taxes to serve on City Council.
After the public hearings and discussion on each topic, all of the amendments were approved to go to referendum, except for the proposed change of operating on a fiscal year rather than calendar year.
During the public hearing on this topic, it was expressed that the changes were too confusing for the public to understand when their tax bills would come due and how they would be paid under this system.
Council then discussed proposed amendments to the Downtown Tax Increment Financing District Plan. The amendments would allow the city to provide credit enhancement agreements to businesses within the downtown area. It would also give the city more flexibility in how it spends TIF money.
The amount allotted for the TIF is $18,471,200 through the year 2035. The city plans to spend the money on items such as marketing and economic development, including salaries and benefits for the Chamber of Commerce and half of the city manager’s annual salary. Using the TIF fund for these expenditures would free up part of the general fund.
Other proposed expenditures include maintenance for ATV and snowmobile trails, bike trails, slum/blight removal, facade grants for the downtown area, improvements to or possibly a new fire station, a permanent revolving loan fund and other projects.
A public hearing was held on the proposed amendments. After discussion on what would be paid from the TIF funds, how the amendments could benefit business owners in the district and those who are not in the district, and the possibility of attracting new business to Caribou, council approved the proposed amendments.
After another public hearing, council also approved a 180-day moratorium to allow the city time to examine the impact of boarding houses in residential zones as had been brought up during city planning meetings.
Council also approved a consent agenda which included the July 2013 report from the Caribou Police Department, the August Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department report, August financials, approval of a liquor and special amusements license for the Caribou Bowladrome/Sports Inn, property tax abatement for 54 Broadway Street, and a quit claim deed for Michael Tuller was approved as the tax acquired property was sold.
Council also established a public hearing date of Oct. 14 regarding the issue of updating the city’s property maintenance code; property at 201 Old Washburn Road was declared a hazard and nuisance and the code enforcement officer was authorized to post the site as unfit for human occupancy; council approved the purchase of a new ambulance for the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department at a cost of $156,875 and the removal of two older ambulances from the fleet, and council approved Caribou’s ambulance service contracts with Connor, Perham, New Sweden, Stockholm, T16-R4, Westmanland and Woodland.
The meeting concluded with council approving a list of 15 tax acquired properties to be put out to bid and approved Wednesday, Oct. 16, Monday, Oct. 21, and Wednesday, Oct. 23 as dates to conduct a series of public meetings to go over the city’s budget.
The next scheduled regular city council meeting is Monday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.
