CARIBOU, Maine — After more than a year, Caribou has a new code enforcement officer who wants to explore ways that the city can combat its most blighted properties.
In May 2023, former code enforcement officer Ken Murchison retired, leaving the city without a full-time person to investigate complaints and inspect nuisance or potentially dangerous properties. With no qualified applicants stepping forward, that left City Manager Penny Thompson the acting officer, but other job duties meant she often had to prioritize larger code issues.
The city’s search ended in June when they hired John Gibson of Caribou, who most recently served as deputy director for the Aroostook Emergency Management Agency and deputy chief of North Lakes Fire & Rescue.
Gibson’s arrival comes at an important time. With more citizens complaining about property issues from alleged drug activity to crumbling structures, city leaders have made combating blight a higher priority. Though the city does not have an official count, there are numerous properties that have fit that broad definition in recent years.
Since his first day on the job, Gibson has had a lot of catching up to do.
“I’ve gotten dozens of calls from people with questions or concerns about neighbors and property,” Gibson said. “There are at least 12 to 14 properties that I’m regularly checking up on.”
Most of those properties are located within or near downtown Caribou, but others exist in more rural areas or along Route 1 closer to the Caribou-Presque Isle line.
The majority of those properties are what Gibson would call a nuisance, garnering complaints about garbage, rodent infestation, weeds or tall grass, rather than collapsing buildings or foundations.
“I knew that the problem existed, but I didn’t know exactly what is involved with correcting [those issues] until this job,” Gibson said.
Originally from Texas, Gibson performed code enforcement and building inspections as part of his work in fire protection, primarily in hospitals, daycares and other businesses that require stricter inspections. Gibson moved to Caribou in 2017 with his wife Christina Kane-Gibson, a Caribou native and former city marketing director, and their two sons.
In his new job, Gibson has added city zoning and land use permits to his list of regulations to oversee within Caribou. He will also serve as Caribou’s emergency management director, a position that now-retired police chief Michael Gahagan previously held.
Gibson came on just before the Caribou Planning Board began discussing how they might add more enforcement measures to the city’s building and housing ordinance, which dictates how staff responds when property owners do not remedy issues of blight.
Caribou follows the International Property Maintenance Code to determine when a property’s condition has deteriorated to the point of violations. State statute allows the city council to declare properties a nuisance or danger if the owner has not corrected or submitted plans to correct violations.
The planning board needs to workshop potential ordinance changes, but they could make clearer what timeline property owners have for responding to notices and fixing issues and what authority the city has. That section of the ordinance now merely states that the city follows international model policies.
Gibson said he is open to exploring any changes that could help the city be more proactive with property issues.
“Ultimately, the goal is to improve the quality of life for people in the community,” Gibson said.
