CARIBOU, Maine — The Caribou City Council met Monday to hear from the public on the CDBG grant requested by Virtual Managed Solutions as well as to set a date for the city’s public hearing concerning the Caribou Secession Committee.
According to Caribou City Manager Austin Bleess, VMS is looking to secure contracts that would allow them to add up to one hundred new jobs at their location in downtown Caribou. In order to help secure the jobs VMS is working to lock down CDBG funds in the amount of over $365,000, which is half of the goal project cost of $735,666. The other half of the funds would come from other sources.
One issue Bleess said that should be cleared up before the city council approved the grant application is the matter of delinquent taxes — VMS owes $10,855.22 from 2011-2013 in personal property taxes which includes principal and interest, and from 2014 an amount of $2854.38 for personal property taxes and $3704.43 in real estate (property) taxes is owed to the city. Both amounts from 2014 include principal and interest.
“Any approval should be contingent on all the back taxes that need to be paid,” Bleess said.
CB Smith, VMS CEO, said the company lost sight of the property taxes after the loss of one of their servers which contained a portion of their books.
But Bleess did add, “This is a great grant application. We won’t find out if the grant is awarded or not until approximately July,” Bleess said.
Members of the public voiced their opinions concerning the back taxes and most wanted to see the council approve a plan to have the taxes paid if VMS expects the grant application approval. Others stepped up to the podium and shared supportive outlooks for VMS and asked the council to approve the grant.
Mayor Aiken showed a positive attitude when speaking about the possibility of adding new jobs to the city of Caribou.
“When you talk about 50 or 70 jobs you know the immediate thing that comes to my mind is they’re not all going to be from Caribou, but some that are from other locations may decide that it’s worth their while to move to Caribou and start paying property taxes in Caribou,” Mayor Gary Aiken said.
Smith said VMS is committed to paying what the company owes to the city and was willing to work out a plan with the city manager. Councilmen agreed the back taxes were not delinquent enough for VMS to face foreclosure and motioned to move ahead with the CDBG application as long as there’s a plan set to pay the taxes owed. Bleess and Smith will be working on the plan in the coming weeks.
In other business, representatives of the Caribou Secession Committee took to the podium with the hope of setting a date for the public hearing they’ve been so eager to secure after they received their certified secession petition.
According to Mayor Aiken, the city council attempted to set the meeting place for the hearing at the Caribou Wellness Center, but secession committee spokesperson, Paul Camping, surprised the council with a new venue for the hearing. Camping proposed they hold the hearing on Saturday, May 23, at 7 p.m. at the Caribou Performing Arts Center. Camping had already gone ahead and got permission to use the center from RSU 39 superintendent Susan White.
“It strikes me as a strange time, but it doesn’t mean we can’t consider it,” Aiken said.
“It was to give us the time to prepare our work that we need to present, and it was also a weekend with the simple fact that there’s more people who’ll be able to come,” committee representative Maynard St. Peter said.
The secession committee is required by law to make a formal presentation which must include a description of the problems that have led to the secession effort. Those who attend the hearing will have the chance to discuss the problems and any potential solutions, and the committee shall submit a written report at the public hearing that describes the impact to the proposed secession on property taxes within and outside of the secession territory.
“We anticipate that many members of the public on both sides of the issue will like to speak at the hearing so we should be prepared for a long evening,” Camping said.
The secession committee is still working on drafting their tax impact statement and are relying on more information from the city. Councilmen were concerned about the committee’s report still being a draft and were curious if the secession committee will have it ready in time for the public hearing.
“I just don’t want to schedule a meeting and find out that everything isn’t going to be available, we won’t have what you need, and you won’t be able to get your end done,” Aiken said.
The city council tabled the discussion on the logistics and the format of the public hearing until their next meeting. The city is working with the committee on getting the financial statements the secession committee is looking for.
Also at Monday’s meeting, members of Troop 184 made an appearance in the audience. The boys earned their citizen badges by participating in a city council meeting.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 27 at 6 p.m.
