CARIBOU, Maine — “You probably won’t want to hear what I have to say,” said Caribou resident Wilfred Martin during a Feb. 12 City Council meeting. Martin voiced concerns about a $25,000 study to examine constructing an $8 million public safety building that would house the city’s fire, ambulance, and police departments.
City officials say the new building, which would be located on Route 1 where the Birds Eye plant was formerly located, would eliminate the need to make extensive repairs on the existing fire and police buildings.
“Now is the time,” Deputy Mayor Nicole Cote, who was acting as mayor in David Martin’s absence, told Wilfred Martin.
“I’m still at a quandary here on why you threw $25,000 down the rat hole in about three seconds,” Martin said, “Is there anybody here that can answer that. You voted for it.”
City Manager Dennis Marker told Martin the money was authorized to provide an additional investigation into the feasibility and needs related to the proposed building.
“I met with the architect last week,” Marker said, “and actually asked them to give us a breakdown of the scope of the work, and all the things they would be doing for us. We won’t be paying them a cent until we get that in writing, and have a contract in place outlining what the council has directed us to do.”
The city manager said the architectural firm, Port City Architects out of Portland, has already sent the city a bill, and that he told them he was not going to pay anything until all aspects of the plan are clearly outlined.
“Good,” said Martin. “The reason I’m bringing this up is because you are going to form a committee to do a study on the project, aren’t you? You’re going to have the people at large on that committee, so there’s no need to spend $25,000 when the people at large can do the same study. Am I correct?”
Cote clarified that the citizen committee is to be involved in the decision-making process, and that the study, will outline the city’s options in terms of design and feasibility.
“We can come up with options awful quick,” Martin said, later adding that he “would like to be on that committee” if he could.
“Your name has been submitted,” Cote said.
“Oh good,” said Martin, who added that he would like to take a look at the fire station, and that later he would like to discuss methods of potentially eliminating overtime for fire and ambulance workers.
Cote thanked him for his time, and with no additional public comments, councilors moved on to the next agenda item.
Later in the meeting, however, newly elected councilor Mark Goughan also raised concerns about the project, and suggested looking at other locations for the building and exploring less expensive alternatives. Again, the Council took no action.
