CARIBOU, Maine — The Caribou City Council met for their regular meeting on Nov. 10, 2014 at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. Prior to the regular meeting, a special ceremony was also held to swear in the newly elected councilor Tiffany Steward, who recently ran unopposed for the one-year council seat. Stewart won the election with 2,375 votes.
Councilors reconvened for a public hearing to discuss the 2015 budget. One town entity represented at the meeting was the Caribou Chamber of Commerce. Members of the Chamber board of directors attended the meeting to request the continued aid from the town, in the amount of $15,000 for the Chamber’s 2015 budget, as well as for the town to continue paying the expenses at the Nylander Museum where Chamber business is conducted.
Mayor Gary Aiken gave his input on the town’s upcoming budget for 2015 by explaining that if the council has assigned a number to a portion of the budget, that number is there because that is what the council believes will be necessary for that budget item.
“In order to buy the equipment or services we need, we need to have that money there, whether it’s now or five years down the road from now,” said Aiken. “If we cut that money just to try to flat fund a budget or avoid a tax increase, what you’re doing is building up for a big tax increase at some point down the line. If we don’t have the money in there and we have to replace something like a fire truck, that money is going to have to come from somewhere and it will likely be in that year’s taxes.”
Aiken added that the town put in a request for the possibility of having an event coordinator, but he explained that he couldn’t justify having both an event coordinator and a chamber of commerce.
“We’ve got to do either one or the other. We can’t have both,” said Aiken. “It’s not required to have both, because the two positions are overlapping. I can go whichever way the board decides to go on this issue, but I can’t be in favor of having both.”
Jim Cyr, the vice president of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce board of directors, stepped to the podium during the public input portion of the meeting. He informed the council that he would like to speak as not only a representative of the Chamber, but also as a taxpayer.
“I appreciate the work the council has done — not just this year, but for many years now, trying to balance the cost the city incurs with the taxpayers,” Cyr began. “I would advocate for the Chamber budget being as previously requested. We have made progress and I absolutely concur with what Mayor Aiken said, which is that as we make progress as a chamber, it doesn’t seem to make sense that there’s an effort to incur costs with another position that does essentially the same work. We as a Chamber, try to raise as much of our funds through the business community as possible, and through our events. We have always had good support from the city as well.
“I’m not familiar with that position (event coordinator). I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of it on any municipal level north of Portland, and the Chamber has had to deal with some very confusing changes in the last five years, it’s safe to say,” added Cyr. “As we have made good progress in setting a good direction and building our membership base, as well as developing more volunteer support and activity, I have to say that this just feels like another confusing type of moment in the recent history of the chamber. I assume there’s a reason for the idea. I don’t know what that would be necessarily, but it does seem to conflict with what we as a chamber are trying to accomplish.”
Aiken responded by pointing out that he was hoping to see a five-year plan laid out by the Chamber, which he understands will be done soon, but he did state that he was disappointed at the fact that it had not yet been done.
“That’s the kind of information that I would like to see here to help me determine which way I think we should go, in all honesty,” said Aiken.
During an interview on Tuesday, Aiken explained that any decision-making when it comes to a city budget is a continuous balancing act, and it will be this way for many years to come.
“Economic times in northern Maine haven’t changed … other areas beginning to see changes in economic development, but that’s just not the case in small towns,” he said.
The next regular City Council meeting will be held on Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers.
