To the editor:
This past week an elderly lady trying to walk to the Methodist Church from the Prospect Street parking lot fell and broke her ankle. She fell because the sidewalk had not been cleared of snow.
The downtown area sidewalks are usually snow covered with snowbanks making it all but impossible to access them from the street. The snow cleanup is, if at all, usually three or four days after a storm. School children walk in the streets because sidewalks have not been plowed. People walking at night in those same streets are in danger of being run over because we have turned off street lights. Our streets are pot holed, not just pot holed but POT HOLED.
The Public Works Department has all it can do to keep the streets and roads open. The Department has been decimated by manpower and budget cuts. This winter has been a mild one, snow has not been removed pushed back or hauled away it melts during the day, and freezes at night. Culverts and catch basins cannot get rid of the runoff due to ice. This causes lakes and ponds, and leads to pot holes and busted pavement.
Money saved by these manpower layoffs will cost the taxpayer much more in the near future.
A year or so ago the City Council eliminated the Assistant Manager position, a step in the right direction. Then they hired, I think its called, an Events Co-ordinator, with the savings from the eliminated position of Assistant Manager. This year, you guessed it, they hired an Assistant Manager with the savings from several positions from the Public Works? Then we have renovated city offices to the tune of $143,000; must be we need more office space for all the new staff.
With the savings from turning off the street lights we could probably hire an Assistant Treasurer, or did we already fill that position? We must also have saved a pile of money eliminating the position of Code Enforcement. Wonder if anyone bothers to get building permits anymore? How much money have our citizens saved there?
Recently, the Fire Department went from three men per shift to five men per shift. The department once upon a time with three men on a shift used part-timers to fill in when needed. Presque Isle Fire has four men on each shift. I believe Presque Isle is half again as large as Caribou. Of course with all the empty buildings in Caribou I can see where our department probably has more work to do.
Kind of makes you wonder if we could use new management.
