By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
At the Jan. 3 Caribou City Council meeting following the swearing in of new and reelected councilors Bryan Thompson, Mary Kate Barbosa, Philip McDonough and Gary Aiken, the 2012 panel, by a show of hands, elected Kenneth Murchison to continue in his duties as mayor and David Martin was named as deputy mayor.
In the re-organization meeting the council appointed Jayne Farrin, city clerk, as secretary to the council and voted to establish the regular city council meetings to be held at 7 p .m., on the second and fourth Monday of each month with workshops taking place following the second meeting of the month. All council meetings will be televised via Time Warner Cable.
City Manager Steven Buck asked the councilors to consider authorizing the collection of property taxes before the 2012 commitment date allowing property owners to pay no interest on prepayments. A motion was made by McDonough, seconded by Martin to authorize the tax collector to accept payments towards property taxes prior to the 2012 commitment date and pay no interest on those payments. This motion was approved.
In other agenda items, the council authorized a Tax Club for 2012, providing for 12 equal payments on tax accounts with no interest charged during the months of October, November and December, as long as payments were made on schedule.
During the Jan. 9 regular city council meeting Caribou Middle School students who are members of the school’s Developmental Asset Team, were on hand performing an original vocal selection, “Let’s Move,” to the music of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” The appearance of the CMS students, accompanied by members of the Let’s Move steering committee, was to encourage the council to once again support the Let’s Move initiative, which focuses on reducing local levels of childhood obesity.
In other agenda items, councilors voted to establish an emergency 60-day moratorium on the sale and discharge of consumer fireworks; authorized a municipal quitclaim deed for taxes paid in full regarding Map 2, Lot 47C; considered the abatement of interest and lien costs on two accounts due to past payment arrangement and issued a municipal quitclaim deed for owner of tax map 29 Lot 44 and the owners of Tax map 7, Lot 20A with the stipulation that the owners are required to participate in the 2012 Tax Club.
The council also approved putting out to bid two tax acquired properties with a minimum bid amount and other specifics to appear in the advertisement.
The next regular city council meeting will be held on Monday, Jan. 23 beginning at 7 p.m.
