By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — It will cost $249 for each new phone systems to be installed for Caribou’s library, police department, public works department, fire department and parks and recreation department, but the total $1,245 expense seemed to be considered well worth it by the Caribou City Council, as they unanimously approved the expenditure during their Sept. 10 meeting.
Speaking on behalf of his department, Public Works Director David Ouellette apprised the council of the situation with the city’s phones.
“Although nowhere near as severe as police and fire departments, the grief that [phone system] has caused my department is phenomenal,” Ouellette said. “Last year we evoked the EOC (Emergency Operation Center) three times and my phones didn’t work any of those times; I had four or five guys [not at work] — trees down, flooding of the roads — three of those guys, I actually had to go drive to their house because I could not get the phones to work. Now I couldn’t tell you if our old phones would have worked, because we didn’t have them, but we never had problems like that before.”
Funds to reinstall the former phone systems will be taken from each department’s current operating budget.
The council also thoroughly discussed funding of the Grimes Mill Road Slope Stabilization Project, as the upgrade is projected to cost $495,000.
“We have no choice,” Ouellette explained, “the road is a landslide.”
He also informed the council that FEMA will foot the brunt of the project’s bill (75 percent), and the state will pay 15 percent of the cost. Caribou is expected to pay 10 percent, which Ouellette suggested would come from Public Works Department’s Streets and Roads account.
After filing an extension with FEMA, Ouellette informed the council that Caribou has until the end of 2013 to complete the slope stabilization project for the Grimes Mill Road.
The city is currently working on the final engineering portion of the project, which will cost about $92,000 in itself.
Preparing for the upcoming budget season, the council also discussed increasing the per-gallon fuel charge for municipal vehicles.
As was described during the meeting, the city has their own fuel tanks; staying in compliance with regulations set by the Department of Environmental Protection, the fuel tanks will have to be replaced by 2020, when the tanks turn 30 years old.
To fund the future replacement of the tanks, each gallon of gas used for municipal vehicles has an additional four cents added to the price for at least the past 14 years, as Ouellette explained; the extra fee is applied so that each department contributes proportionately to the fuel tank replacement — the heavier users pay a heavier amount and likewise for those who use less fuel.
Currently, the reserve account for replacing the fuel tanks contains about $45,000; Ouellette estimated that in the best-case scenario, it would probably cost $125,000 to $140,000 to replace the fuel system.
In order to be able to reach at least $125,000 in the reserve account by 2020, the council agreed to increase the fee placed on top of each municipal gallon of gas to 10 cents.
The next meeting of the Caribou City Council takes place on Monday, Sept. 24 starting at 6 p.m. for an executive session.
