By Gary Aiken
Summer is officially over, but what a summer it was. I know it has been said before but it’s worth saying again. Thursdays on Sweden Street was fantastic. In the 15 years I’ve lived here there has never been anything that has created the excitement and talk that this event has. It was the topic of conversation everywhere you went in town. My hat is off to the Parks & Recreation Dept., Public Works, Caribou’s finest (Police and Fire) and the city’s administration for all the time and effort they put in to make this event possible. I have had a number of people ask me how much it cost to put this on. I can honestly say that I don’t know and I don’t care. Whatever it was, it was well worth it.
I do know that a lot of the entertainment was either provided for free, sponsored by a local business or the bands agreed to perform for a drastically reduced fee. I also know that all those city employees you saw downtown helping vendors set up, making sure everything we needed was available, cleaning up after everybody else went home and, in general, just making sure Caribou did a great job running this event, volunteered their time because of their sense of community involvement.
I was questioned by a number of our local nay sayers as to how much it was costing to have all these people down there. The answer is nothing.
I usually end my columns with the question, “What have you done today to make Caribou a better place to live?” The city employees who were involved with this project certainly did their share over the summer in making that happen. And what a great platform this was for the many youth organizations in town to raise money for their group’s projects. The FFA, Graduating Class, and Girl Scouts all took full advantage of the opportunity.
As usual when any of these groups get involved in events there are always local businesses and people behind the scenes helping out. I don’t know who they all are because they don’t do it to be recognized, they just want to do their part. Northeast Propane donated all the propane so the FFA could cook those great french fries we all enjoyed. When they needed potatoes for the last night, Nelson Chapman from Chapman Farms stepped up and donated them. Dave Corriveau and his wife Patty from Phil’s Florist were down there every week, selling plants and donating half their proceeds to the FFA, and I am sure there were others I am not aware of who did their share as well. Many thanks to all of them.
I’ve talked to a number of the people who were involved in this event, and asked them if we were going to do the same thing next year? The answer from all of them was the same. “No. We’re going to make it better.” I can hardly wait for next year.
As I said earlier, summer is over and you know what that means. Election time for City Council has arrived. Hopefully all of you will take 15 minutes out of your busy schedules and exercise your right to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5th. This year there will be four seats that need to be filled. Two of those will be for a one-year term and the other two will be for a three-year term.
One of the three-year term seats will be to fill the position held by Ken Murchison. Ken is another one of our citizens who you will never have to ask the question, “what have you done today to make Caribou a better place to live?” In addition to serving on City Council for 12 years, Ken has been very active in the community, doing a lot of volunteer work for the Boy Scouts, serving on the boards for the soup kitchen and the Tri-Community Landfill and I’m sure a lot of other things that I am not aware of. Although Ken and I have not always agreed on some of the actions Council has taken, there is no doubt in my mind that he, as well as all members of Council, make their decisions on what they think is best for the city of Caribou and its citizens. Unlike the people involved in federal or state government, Ken will not be retiring with a big pension or a health care plan for life. The only thing you get from municipal government is the satisfaction that hopefully you have made a difference.
I have enjoyed working with Ken over the past two years and will miss our conversations and his input on issues facing the city over the coming year. It is, however, comforting to know that he will always be out there doing his share to make Caribou a better place for all of us.
“What have you done today to make Caribou a better place to live?”
This column is strictly the opinion or view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the City of Caribou’s administration staff, its employees, or other council members. Gary Aiken may be reached at garyaiken@hotmail.com.
