To the editor:
I watched the Caribou City Council meeting on TV the evening of February 23rd. I must have been desperate for a good laugh as it was definitely a “Comedy of Errors,” by the elected council members. However for the Phil St. Peter family of Caribou it had to be a heartbreaking and frustrating experience.
When did we lose “our town?” Who gave it away. What right does the city have to give Sitel 100 parking spaces, and then force the current local businesses to buy and maintain the rest of the parking spaces. All of this trouble could have been prevented with some decent communication skills. Please don’t try to tell me that the council members and the city manager were openly communicating with the businesses involved with this deal. Been there — it doesn’t happen.
Did you watch the council bumble its way throughout the hearing and then during the meeting finally vote on the ordinance and then when the vote didn’t go the way he wanted it to, the chair asks how to have the “vote reconsidered.” The chair asking if he could vote and then deciding that it was strange that even though he was on the Charter Commission, he hadn’t remembered the legalities about passing an ordinance that he had helped create. There were motions being made, tossed, remade, amended, voted on and not voted on until one felt as dizzy as though being on the Speeding Bullet at the fairgrounds.
What deal! Do you really think the Sitel Corporate offices care about little old Caribou except for what they can squeeze out of us. These are not high-paying jobs that will enrich our community except to maybe open a couple of fast food diners in the downtown area with more low-paying jobs. If Sitel ever actually does have over 500 employees as predicted – how will Caribou ever handle the parking problems for all those additional low-paying jobs.
As a lifelong family friend of the St. Peter family (Janice and I go back to second grade), I am aware of how much this family has done for Caribou. I am aware of how many well-paying professional jobs they have created in Caribou. The St. Peter family deserved better than this especially since we know that during all this wheeling and dealing with the council, they were also suffering the broken hearts of a family deeply into the journey of grief. How could they begin to concentrate on the Caribou council BS when their child lay dying.
How can one even think about parking spaces when you have just lost the love of your life. When did Caribou become so cold. Caribou is always spoken of as the coldest spot in the U.S., but now it is for more than one reason.
A few communication skills could have prevented all these bad feelings. Is that asking too much of our city manager? Is that asking too much of our civic leaders? This is shameful. Caribou can do better.
Norma Milton
Caribou
