CARIBOU, Maine — Representatives of the Caribou Secession Committee shook hands with County Commissioners at their March 18 meeting in Caribou.
According to Secession Committee spokesperson Paul Camping, the committee wants to lay the groundwork with County Commissioners for any future partnerships that may arise.
“That’s how we’re going to save money through regional collaboration and offering services to our citizens at the most cost effective manner possible,” Camping said.
Alongside Camping was committee representative, Maynard St. Peter, who introduced commissioners to the proposed borders of the 80 percent of Caribou that would become the town of Lyndon, should the secession carry through.
“We thought it was a very informative presentation,” County Administrator Doug Beaulieu said. “The commissioners didn’t know much about [the Caribou Secession Committee] than what they read about it in the paper. Mr. Camping and Mr. St. Peter did an excellent job articulating the issue and the process and some other factors, the history of the communities and so on.”
County commissioners service 68 jurisdictions in Aroostook County and should the Caribou Secession Committee succeed, all that would mean is the commissioners would serve an additional territory.
“Frankly it’s pretty much business as usual to us. This is a local issue, an issue the citizens of Caribou have to wrestle with and sort out,” Beaulieu said. “They’re looking potentially for partnerships. They can’t be committal on that because they don’t have a structure in place, they don’t have policy makers, they’re just two representatives of the secession committee, they can’t make any commitments to anyone at this point.”
The Secession Committee submitted their petition to split off from urban Caribou early this March. They’re currently waiting to hear back from the city of Caribou about the possibility of a public hearing following the tally of their petition. Camping believes the tally will pass with flying colors.
