To the editor:
There is a constant barrage of statements coming from the Caribou City Council claiming that the Secession Committee is making false claims that Lyndon will not be able to manage and maintain it roads on the monies — $650,000 — we say are adequate.
First let’s look at the number of road miles that will be located in Lyndon. There are 90.4 miles of highways servicing Lyndon. The state of Maine plows and maintains 17 miles of the highway system leaving 73.4 miles for the town of Lyndon to plow.
The secession committee feels that the plowing of these roads annually can be done by one or more contractors for $5,000 a mile if they are given a multi-year contract. Plowing for Lyndon could and should be accomplished for the grand sum of $367,000.
The State of Maine will also maintain the surface of 19.53 miles of these roads known as State Aid Highways. This now leaves 53.97 miles of country roads to be maintained by Lyndon.
Again the Secession Committee feels and will suggest to the Town of Lyndon governing officials that $5,000 a mile be used issuing contracts to maintain their roads and suggest that $265,000 annually be allocated for this purpose. The maintaining of the highways in Lyndon can be accomplished for a grand sum of $636,350.
The Secession Committee has always used $650,000 as its baseline when trying to derive a final expense number for maintaining Lyndon’s roads and this we have told the citizens and this we will suggest to the Lyndon officials.
Mayor Aiken has criticized our numbers and has used the town of Van Buren contracts as an example at the work shop we held July 7, 2015. He stated that some of Van Buren’s contract plowing was over $8,000 a mile and implied that it would cost Lyndon as much.
The town of Van Buren has a Public Works Department that had a total budget of $268,145 to maintain its 32 miles of streets and country roads for the year ending June 30, 2015. This averages out to be $8,380 per mile for annual maintenance. Van Buren received revenues of $15,860 for its annual contracted plowing. Caribou on the other hand will have a Public Works Department operating on $1,975,394 to maintain 154 miles of streets and roads for 2015. This averages out to be $12,827 per mile of street or road, 50 percent higher than Van Buren.
Other towns, in our surrounding area do maintain a cost schedule for plowing at less than $5,000 a mile for country roads. Caribou in fact plows some of the country roads of our neighboring community of Connor for, guess it, you are right, $5,000 a mile and when recommending that Caribou should go after this contract the Public Works manager on camera said that the city would make money doing so. So can a private contractor.
The constant criticisms and insinuations by Mayor Aiken, that we have not done our homework and don’t know what we are talking about is no more then and effort by this city official to confuse and discourage the residents of the seceding area. We have dedicated hundreds of hours in our studies and in our efforts to give the residents of the seceding area numbers that are as correct as humanly possible and to show them they no longer have to put up with the heavy burden of taxation that Caribou city officials have placed on them. We have corresponded with and talked to State, County, RSU39 officials and neighboring town employees to arrive at our numbers.
Everything we are suggesting is very realistic. Some fine-tuning will be necessary and zero-based budgeting will allow for that.
Maynard St. Peter
Secession Committee member
Caribou
