CARIBOU, Maine — While 80 percent of Caribou’s voters were against selling the downtown mall parking lots, some members of City Council considered the possibility of selling them at a future date during their Nov. 28 meeting.
Councilors Jody Smith and Shane McDougall made a motion to not sell the lots “at this time,” and keep the city’s options open. Mayor Gary Aiken added that, if the business owners of the downtown mall came together to buy the lots, he would be receptive to the offer.
Councilor Joan Theriault motioned to not sell the downtown mall parking lots, and there was no second or vote on that motion either.
Aiken added that regardless of what is decided, “Council could sit here two years from now and vote to sell the lots.”
Out of 3,729 voters, 2,971 voted to keep the lots while 758 chose to let the city sell them. The local referendum vote was not a legally binding measure but advisory in nature.
Ultimately, council took no further action on the matter during their meeting, and City Manager Austin Bleess said during a Tuesday morning phone interview the “issue is considered settled” and “the stance from staff is that the city is not interested in selling the lots.”
“Council did not take any action so staff considers the matter settled,” Bleess said. “I would tell anyone interested in buying the lots that the city is not interested in selling them.”
According to the city manager, anyone who still wishes to buy the parking lots can still technically approach the council with their proposal during a future meeting. However, the response from city staff will be “no.”
