And the survey says!

The results of the services survey are published in the Republican today and if not already available on the city’s website, they will be posted there in the near future. Thanks to everyone who participated as well as to my fellow councilors who volunteered their time to conduct the survey and tabulate the results. I decided to write this column based on the many questions and comments received on the survey and in person during the polling hours in hopes of clarifying a number of issues.
We received many comments regarding the school district. They included, “why wasn’t there anything regarding the school system on the survey”, “there are fewer students than there used to be and the administration positions should be reduced more”, “lot less kids now, why not fewer teachers”, “superintendent’s salary is too high”, “teachers should pay bigger share of their health insurance”, and “harvest break should be done away with”, etc.
For those who don’t understand how the system works, City Council has nothing to do with the school budget, or how the school district is run. That responsibility rests with the school board. They prepare their budget, the citizens vote on it, if approved, the board advises the city of their financial requirement, the city adjusts the mill rate to include their requirements, it appears on your tax bill, you pay your taxes and the city sends the school district their share.
After hearing the many comments at the polls and reading them in the survey, perhaps the school board should consider doing their own survey.
The annual brush removal program appeared to be very popular, but there were many comments as well, from the timing of it, should be advertised better, should be available for all citizens, amount should be limited as some citizens take advantage of it, no sense putting anything out because they don’t pick it up anyway, etc.
This program is available to everyone. It is normally done over a three-day period each spring. All the streets in the city are covered once only, so if you don’t have it out on the first day and your area has been covered, you will probably not have it picked up. Anyone living in the country can notify Public Works and they will come and remove the brush. They do not drive over all the country roads in case anyone has brush to be picked up. As far as timing and advertising, perhaps this program should start the first Monday in June every year so people know when to expect it.
We also received many comments regarding doing things other than reducing services to lower taxes. These included getting grants or private donors for things like the library and rec department and bringing new businesses to Caribou to increase our tax base, etc. All of these things are being done. The department heads all spend time writing grant requests for everything from fire dept. and police dept. equipment, to downtown revitalization, to tourism promotion, to blighted property removal, to airport improvement, etc. The problem is, just about every community in the country is doing the same thing and there is only so much grant money available.
Bringing in new business is a very similar scenario. If a business is looking for a location to build, they normally look at proximity to the major markets for their product, availability of raw materials they require, transportation costs, energy costs, quality and availability of local workforce, state and local taxes, state and local incentives available, etc. Our city’s administration is constantly contacting companies directly and through consultants to entice them to come to Caribou. So are most of the other communities in the country today. The same thing applies to the retail trade and restaurants.
Anyone who has any new or innovative ideas on how to attract business to Caribou should contact the City Manager as I’m sure he would appreciate all the help he can get in accomplishing this Herculean task.
Just a few odds and ends to finish up:
• There were a couple of questions about where the money from speeding fines went. The answer to that is simple. 100 percent of money collected for speeding tickets goes to the State. To make matters worse, any tickets that are challenged in court requires the city to have the issuing officer present (usually at their overtime rate) and all costs for this are paid by the city.
• A number of people didn’t understand why we needed an assistant city manager now, when we never had one in the past. You could ask why we had an economic development manager and a director of human resources in the past and we don’t need one now. It all comes down to just a change in titles and a realignment of duties. No extra people were added to the city’s staff. In fact we ended up saving $17,000 when all the changes were complete. The assistant manager is also taking on a number of the duties formally held by the recently retired code enforcement officer which will result in additional savings to the city.
• I received a number of comments regarding the poor quality of the city council broadcasts. In particular the sound on the broadcast. The problem is with the Time Warner system and the only way it will be fixed is if enough of their customers call and complain about it. I know it is a pain to call and have to go through all the recorded options, but if enough people don’t do this, the problem will never get fixed. You don’t have to call during the program. Call today.
Again thanks to everyone who participated in the survey. With one exception everyone seemed to think it was a worthwhile and most appreciated the opportunity to give their opinion. I am sorry that one person was appalled that city council would even consider reducing any services. I guess the key word is “consider.” I actually thought it was council’s job to look at the services the city provides along with the costs, and evaluate whether we should carry on as we are now or consider making changes for the future.
Based on the response we had, don’t be surprised if you see us back at the polls in November.
“What have you done today to make Caribou a better place to live.”
This column is strictly the opinion or view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the City of Caribou’s administration staff, its employees, or other council members. Gary Aiken may be reached at garyaiken@hotmail.com