CARIBOU, Maine — Taxes may be higher than many property owners might like, but tearing the city apart is not the answer, according to several businessmen and residents Friday reacting to a local secession effort.
During a public hearing Thursday night, members of the Caribou Secession Committee presented city officials with a 54-page report outlining details of their plan, including the economic effects of breaking up the city into two communities. Under the plan, about a quarter of the existing area in the more populated urban section still would be called Caribou; the remaining, more rural part of the city would become the town of Lyndon.
“I am very concerned about this plan,” Troy Haney, Caribou resident and business owner, said Friday morning. “This would affect our property values, and I am afraid to reduce services like fire, ambulance, police and road.”
Haney lives and runs his building supply business, Haney’s Building Specialties, on Route 1 in the area that would become Lyndon. He also owns property in the urban area that would remain Caribou. He said he has no desire to see the city of 8,189 residents split apart.
Saying he had no particular complaint about local taxes, Haney did say it is never a bad idea to look at tax rates and city expenditures to see whether any cost savings could be found.
“If there are problems, splitting the town into two is not a good solution,” he said. “Certainly all citizens want services.”
The pros and cons of secession were hot topics Friday in businesses around Caribou, but not all business owners were willing to go on the record to talk about it, saying they did not want to alienate customers with strong feelings one way or the other.
At Russell-Clowes Insurance on Bennett Drive, owner Kristin Russell said she has heard many of her customers talking about the issue.
“Some say it’s a good idea, and some say it’s a bad idea,” Russell said. “There are a lot of uncertainties about it.”
Russell said she has not had a chance to read the full secession report yet, but she plans on doing so. What she does know about it is not enough to convince her to change her address.
“I am going to remain a Caribou citizen,” she said. “I will not be moving to Lyndon.”
Nearby at Clukey’s Auto Shop, employee Roger Cyr said he is not a fan of splitting the town in two.
“I would not go along with secession,” Cyr said. “I guess they want lower taxes, and I can see that, [but] I don’t see how secession would help anyone outside of the new town.”
The debate on secession in Caribou is a microcosm of a larger debate across Maine regarding the tax burden on property owners, especially in service center communities with large overheads and municipal budgets.
On Thursday night, more than 300 turned out for the public hearing. Early on, those who spoke identified themselves as rural residents who were in favor of action that would reduce their taxes. Several also expressed concerns they were being shorted on services compared to downtown folks.
During the meeting, however, Caribou Mayor Gary Aiken countered that Camping’s claim was the first he had heard about any “rural bias” on the part of city officials.
“I’m upset you are saying there is a bias against rural residents,” Aiken said Thursday night. “I know I don’t have any bias. People from the rural area come into town and enjoy the services we provide here.”
Camping and his committee said the majority of the revenues that pay for services, such as street lights, sidewalks, the airport, recreation or festivals, are paid for by rural citizens who are unable to access them.
Gail Hagelstein, who lives in the urban area, said Thursday she too was confused by the bias statement.
“We are all part of the community, and we all pay for the services whether they are ones you use or not. That is what it means to be part of a community.”
Haney said Friday he is worried some critical services could be greatly reduced for residents of the future Lyndon.
“The [secession] committee is telling us we could get police protection through the [Aroostook County] sheriff’s office,” he said. “I believe they have three or four deputies for the whole county, and if they are in Monticello or Fort Kent when I call, it’s going to take them 45 minutes to get here.”
Response time from Caribou police in an emergency is under five minutes, Haney said.
Haney also questioned the budget numbers the committee presented to fund emergency services, saying they did not reflect real expenses and fell far short of what would be needed to pay for the planned volunteer ambulance and fire departments.
“I don’t believe Lyndon will be a reality. I think the general consensus is it won’t happen,” he said. “It does not make sense to have a town wrapped around a city.”
On Friday, Caribou City Manager Austin Bleess said it’s too soon to know the economic effect but that secession possibly could reduce taxes for residents who remain in Caribou.
“We could be looking at some cost savings to Caribou,” he said. “Right now we are maintaining 150 miles of road, and under secession we’d be down to 50 miles to maintain.”
But how Lyndon would plow and maintain roads is a concern for Haney.
“The city does a great job clearing our roads in the winter because they do not have to operate at a profit,” he said. “If [Lyndon] maintains their roads with private contractors [as suggested], they have to look for profit and may not be out there as often.”
Bleess said it is too soon to talk hard budget numbers if the town splits up, but he did say he is concerned about the effect the threat of secession is having on the city.
“This negative attention is not helping us,” he said. “I’d rather be focusing on increasing city efficiencies and the good things going on in Caribou.”
Haney also is worried about outside perceptions of Caribou with all the talk of secession.
“I build homes, and this affects our business,” he said. “I have some empty houses I can’t sell, and the negativity is stopping people from investing in our community — and that is never a good thing.”
Haney and Bleess feel if people want change, they should do so by working with the existing process, not carving up the town.
“Ever since the [secession] committee started last summer, we made it known they are welcome to come in and talk to the council,” Bleess said. “They have never come in.”
Haney said the secession committee has raised some good points, but there are better ways to be heard.
“I did not see any of your names on the ballot last year,” he said during Thursday’s hearing. “If you have great ideas, share your ideas, get people behind you and get voted in [and] do your part.”
Now that the five-member secession committee has held the required public hearing, it has 12 months to make the vision of Lyndon a reality.
For the effort to continue, legislation would need to be introduced in Augusta within the next year to create the new town, according to Camping.
The process also has to move through referendum votes and City Council action, Bleess said. If the two sides are unable to agree on the secession process, the entire thing could end up in the hands of an outside mediator or in court, he said.
Caribou resident Wes Rankin said he would like to see the two sides sit down and work things out to avoid splitting the town apart.
“It comes down to people not liking the taxes they have, but they like their town,” Rankin said. “I love it here [and] don’t want to call it anything else but Caribou. I think both sides ought to sit down, pay attention to what the other is saying and figure something out that is good for all of us.”
