By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Following a figure-heavy presentation on April 8, members of the Caribou City Council agreed that rec department employees should continue their mowing and maintenance during the summer months instead of hiring a private contractor to do the job.
Addressing the council, Superintendent of the Caribou Parks and Recreation Department Kathy Mazzuchelli gave a rundown of the bid results for the 18-24 landscape areas that rec employees have been responsible for.
“We also asked that any potential bidders meet us and we took them on a tour to identify the areas [for maintenance] and talk about any questions they had,” she said.
The long and short of it — Mazzuchelli stated that on a 24-week cycle, it costs the city roughly $335.19 per week to care for the landscapes; the lowest bid received for the same services came in at $346.66 per week and the highest bid was up around $1,648.85 per week.
Those figures translate to a current city-cost of $8,045, a private contractor low bid of $8,320 and the highest private contractor bid coming in at $39,500.
“At this juncture, it appears we can still do it more economically that putting it out to bid for a private contractor,” Mazzuchelli said, citing a huge difference in cost-per-hour rates, the ability to obtain surplus equipment and in-house mechanic work as reasons why the city was able to provide services at a decreased cost.
With their decision to keep mowing within the department, the councilors rejected the bids.
Though the council was able to arrive at a resolution regarding lanscape maintenance, the matter of a building’s maintenance was approved to receive attention from the city’s attorney.
As explained by City Manager Austin Bleess, the former Maine Military Authority building located at 60 Access Highway is in need of approximately $175,000 in repairs — which contractually fall under the responsibility of MMA. In addition, he informed the council that MMA owes the city roughly $35,000 in rent.
On March 15, MMA stopped occupying the Access Highway building — Bleess said company officials returned the keys and essentially returned possession of the building. He also informed the council that MMA’s lease agreement stipulated an automatic lease renewal of five years unless otherwise notified in writing.
“No such notification exists, therefore the lease automatically renewed on Dec. 1, 2010. To date, the city has not received rental payment for Dec. 1, 2010 through Nov. 30, 2012,” Bleess said, citing that the amount equated about $17,500 per year and if the city charged rent from Dec. 1 2012 through March 15, it would equate to about another $3,034.
According to Bleess, MMA’s lease agreement also stipulated that the tenant was responsible for maintaining the building and premises — including the plumbing, heating system, roof, outside walls and windows.
“There was a property condition assessment done in Nov. 2005 and updated in August of 2012, which was the basis of the repair work necessary that the property [required],” Bleess stated, adding that the assessment had been done by an outside engineer rather than a city employee.
Bleess explained to councilors that he’d been informed by MMA officials that they would not be paying the rent dating back to 2010, and they hadn’t responded to a letter Bleess had send last month addressing the repairs.
When asked if MMA officials had given a reason as to why they weren’t going to pay the rent, Bleess explained that “they claimed that in conversations they had previously with city staff that they were told they should stay there without a lease, but there’s nothing in writing to that effect.”
Bleess brought the topic to council requesting authorization to utilize the city attorney in the legal process to recover the funds necessary to complete the repairs and for back rent, which the council granted.
Aside from agreeing that future letters will also be shared with local congressional delegation officials and the commissioner of the Department of Veteran Affairs, as MMA is also a state entity, Bleess also stated that he would try reaching MMA one more time to inform them of the city’s intent.
“This has been a good working relationship, it would be too bad to part ways under these circumstances,” said councilor Kenneth Murchison.
The next meeting of the Caribou City Council will be held on Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m. in the councilors’ chambers.
