CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou City Council voted to transfer $10,557.18 from the 60 Access Highway Maintenance reserve account to the Municipal Building Maintenance reserve account to pay for boiler system upgrades at city hall during an Oct. 26 meeting.
Caribou City Manager Dennis Marker explained that an inspection of two boilers in the city hall basement showed that two significant repairs are needed. He said the city has a $42,905 quote to replace the two boilers and install a new chimney liner to meet codes, and a $35,700 estimate for two propane boilers in the pellet boiler room. Overall, he said the city will need about $40,000 to complete the work.
And before the council voted on the transfer, the municipal building reserve contained $30,418.46.
Marker said the money from the 60 Access Highway Maintenance reserves would help offset costs for fire station repairs. With the repair project spanning two budget years, Marker said additional funds can be set aside for that project while the boiler project would need to be paid with funds available this year.
Councilor Jody Smith asked if the council’s approval of a new fuel oil boiler system would result in completely eliminating the pellet boiler system. Marker said it would, and Smith asked if this means the city has come to the point where the system is non-repairable.
Marker said, in the event of approving the fuel oil boiler, the city would keep the old pellet boiler in case parts could be salvaged for repairs to a similar heating system at the rec center as needed.
Councilor Hugh Kirkpatrick asked if the motion would just be to move the funds, and if the council would need to vote again on an option for repair or replacement.
Marker said this will not result in a specific award for the project, and that the city is still looking at options.
Kirkpatrick clarified that he is okay with transferring the money so the city is able to choose an option, but suggested spending more time researching how to make the existing systems work, and maximizing their benefit, before spending the funds.
Councilor Joan Theriault asked Caribou Fire and Ambulance Chief Scott Susi to discuss issues they have been having with a similar pellet boiler system.
Susi said they have not been able to get “more than two days” of consecutive use of their system before needing to manually make adjustments.
Councilor Doug Morrell asked if this issue had been occurring since the boilers were first installed, which Susi confirmed.
“One night I spent every two hours coming in to hand fill the hopper to get it to feed,” he said, “and then another night I had to come in because the tube that feeds the boiler portion had caught on fire. From day one, it never ran consecutively. They later put in an auger feed, a curled auger that goes in and feeds it, but that never worked properly. So we were hand pushing that to fill up the hopper in the machine, and even then it wouldn’t burn consecutively.”
He said he has a whole line of burned out elements in the back room of the fire department, reiterating that the longest stretch it ever worked was two working days.
“Did you bring that to the council at the time’s attention,” Morrell asked.
“Yes sir,” said Susi, “and the gentleman that installed it was up here a number of times looking it over. They would leave, and they still couldn’t get it to feed correctly.”
Goughan suggested continuing this discussion during a future meeting, and the council voted in favor of approving the resolution to transfer the funds.
Councilors Thomas Ayer and Nicole Cote were absent and excused from the meeting.
