CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou councilors have approved a partnership with the Maine Department of Transportation that gives the green light to sidewalk renovation on Bennett Drive.
On Monday, public works director Dave Ouellette asked councilors to approve a Municipal Partnership Initiative agreement with the DOT to split the cost of a mill and fill project from the intersection near Daigle Oil Co. to Van Buren Road.
The $260,000 project will involve milling and filling a two-inch section of Bennett Drive and adding ramps to make sidewalks compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Per the agreement, the city and the DOT will each pay $130,000 towards the project.
Although the project was initially approved for 2021, the DOT did not have the funds to complete the work, Ouellette said. He said that the council’s approval would allow the DOT to set aside the funds for summer 2022 and for Caribou Public Works to seek bids from local contractors.
When asked by Deputy Council Chairperson Tom Ayer, Ouellette noted that he did not have exact cost estimates for sidewalk materials, but expected the costs to increase in 2022.
Currently, the city’s street reconstruction account has $106,696, Ouellette said. He recommended that the city place additional funds into that account as part of the 2022 budget. Doing so would cover costs of the Bennett Drive project and provide public works with emergency funds if needed, he said.
The council unanimously approved the Bennett Drive project. All seven councilors attended Monday’s meeting.
In other business, the council recognized four Caribou paramedics for delivering a baby boy while en route to Cary Medical Center on Nov. 7.
At 5:38 a.m. that Sunday, Caribou Fire & Ambulance received a call from a woman who lived in a more isolated region of the department’s coverage area. After placing the woman in the ambulance, paramedics Eric Dickinson and Ryan Hall realized that she would give birth before arriving at the hospital.
“They pulled to the side of the road and delivered a healthy baby boy just as paramedics Dann Cyr and John Thornton arrived for back-up support,” Caribou Fire & Ambulance Chief Scott Susi said.
The birth marked the first time in 25 years that a baby was born in a Caribou ambulance, Susi noted.
Beth Collamore, emergency medicine physician at Cary and regional director of Aroostook EMS, presented the paramedics with Maine EMS stork pins. The pins were sent to Caribou from the Maine EMS for Children program in recognition of the paramedics’ actions during that stressful time.
“In EMS, delivering a baby is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It’s 1 percent joy and about 99 percent terror. These men acted flawlessly and I’m so proud of them,” Collamore said.
