CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou city councilors have been skeptical about a proposal to merge the Tri-Community Recycling and Sanitary Landfill with Presque Isle’s landfill ever since the tri-community board members and Presque Isle city councilors announced it in June.
Residents and town officials in Caribou and Fort Fairfield have raised concerns related to a perceived lack of transparency with the proposed merger, as many aspects of the deal have been discussed confidentially in executive session.
While much of the deal remains confidential, Caribou City Manager Dennis Marker introduced a draft of amendments to the proposed merger during a Nov. 13 City Council meeting. The full draft is available on the city website, and its terms include changing the name of the combined landfills to the “Central Aroostook Waste Management Corporation.”
Marker told councilors that the new corporation would be overseen by a board of six directors, with each director having one vote. Presque Isle and Caribou would each have two directors, and Limestone and Fort Fairfield one each.
As members of the tri-community landfill, Caribou currently has two votes and Limestone and Fort Fairfield one each.
In August, Caribou councilors voted to remove two representatives on the tri-community board out of concern that they were moving forward on the merger agreement too quickly. As part of that vote, the councilors agreed to replace the two representatives with Mayor Gary Aiken.
Since then, Presque Isle officials have amended certain aspects of the merger agreement and are awaiting approval from municipal officials of the three tri-community members, according to Marker.
Marker said the amended deal also would require all four communities — Presque Isle, Caribou, Limestone and Fort Fairfield — to approve whether or not other municipalities are able to join, something the Caribou city manager said was previously unclear.
He added that there was still some negotiating over the merger going on.
“As I understand it, the most recent volley we extended was a counter-offer to Presque Isle. They have prepared a response, but we have not yet received it. What we have tonight is a draft of amendments to the agreement.”
While details about the negotiations or the counter offer were not shared publicly, Marker told the councilors that Caribou, Limestone and Fort Fairfield would first need to accept the amended terms in order to finalize the deal.
Councilor Philip McDonough asked if the amendments had been approved by the city’s lawyer.
“We’ve had a legal review of it, but we have not had a lawyer approve it,” Marker said. “It’s up to you folks to approve it.”
Tri-Community Landfill Solid Waste Director Mark Draper commended Marker’s summary of “where we are in the process.”
“Another change we’ve made is in the circumstance of approving the annual budget or borrowing money,” Draper said. “Three out of the four towns will need to approve financial decisions in order to move forward.”
McDonough asked Draper if Presque Isle had responded to Caribou’s counter-offer yet, to which he said he is “still awaiting a response.”
Martin said he was opposed to approving the proposed amendments without knowing details about the merger agreement that have not been made public yet.
“When you have an agreement that’s reasonable, then we’ll talk,” he said, “but until then, I don’t want people downtown saying we let Presque Isle in without knowing what the deal is, so I want to know what the deal is first.”
The city manager told Martin that the council could table the resolution and “wait for when the deal is ready” before taking a vote, which councilors subsequently agreed to do.
