PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — With the long-awaited ground breaking for the Community Center taking place tomorrow, City Council members are considering a 200 percent increase in fees charged to non-residents to access recreation and parks programs. The option for individual towns to subsidize these rates for non-resident fees is a possibility, but will have to be decided by each individual town.
“I hate to see kids not being able to participate, because this will pose a problem for some families,” Chris Beaulieu, Recreation and Parks director, said during Monday night’s meeting.
However, a majority of council members rejected the idea that Presque Isle taxpayers should subsidize the cost for youth from other communities to use city services and felt that those communities should cover their own costs. The revised fee structure has yet to be determined, and further discussion will take place at a future meeting.
With much new business brought to the table, council members approved two different requests to start off the meeting. A request from the Wintergreen Arts Center of $10,000 for the after-school and summer programming and a request from Johnson Cemetery Association to raise the city’s contribution to $1,400 annually. The city previously contributed $400 each year to maintain the cemetery. Bruce Roope, president of the group, made the rrequest.
An update by Maine DOT was provided regarding construction on Main Street. Work is scheduled to start in roughly three weeks and is scheduled to be finished by Oct. 17. (See related story.)
Council members agreed to authorize a change order in regard to the construction of the community center. Any change to the original plans exceeding the cost of $7,500 will need to be approved by the council. The ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the community center will take place Thursday, July 9 at 11 a.m.
The council entered into an airport engineering service agreement with Bridgham Engineering & Land Surveying of Presque Isle for a period of three years. Northern Maine Regional Airport Director Scott Wardwell presented the council with three different engineering firms, with the selected firm having to deal with emerging issues of the airport and not just big capital projects. The other two firms were HTA of Brunswick and Stantec of Caribou.
In other City Council business, all items on the Consent Agenda at the July 6 session were approved. Such items included 2015 warrants 20-24 totaling $2,030,937, the SAD 1 budget referendum, the resignation of Planning Board member Patrick Cote, and easements to EMERA Maine for the airport and on the Marston Road.
Council members accepted the resignation of City Manager James Bennett. Councilors bid him the best of luck in his new position as Biddeford. (see related story.) Bennett’s last official day will be Saturday, Aug. 15.
