CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou City Council unanimously accepted a $38,000 grant to fund a Cary Medical Center and municipal project to improve public transportation throughout the city.
Before holding a public hearing on the matter during a Sept. 23 council meeting, Caribou Zoning Administrator Ken Murchison provided council and residents with some background on the grant and the program.
“The project would use technology to dispatch rides out to the last mile of our region,” Murchison said, “and it involves the purchase of software in order to coordinate the dispatching of those rides.”
The rides, he said, would come from existing programs such as ARTS and RSVP in addition to volunteers and “any agency that offers rides to people” who are mobility-impaired, elderly, isolated, disabled or otherwise unable to leave their homes on their own.
Upon accepting the grant, Murchison said the city would hire one person who would utilize the software and be in charge of dispatching and reaching out to all of the aforementioned entities.
He added that the city would accept the funds, which come from Maine’s Community Development Block Grant program, on behalf of Cary Medical Center.
While the city was awarded the funds prior to the meeting, City Manager Dennis Marker said the council needed to hold a public hearing and then accept the grant funding.
Caribou resident Wilfred Martin asked about the organization providing the funds, and what the program entails.
“The funds originate from the federal government and are given to the state government,” said Caribou Mayor Mark Goughan, “and the state is giving some of these funds to the community to be used for a project that Cary Medical Center and the city have put together to help people who need rides to the doctor and maybe nutritional centers.”
Martin then asked if the city had to match these funds in any way, or if there were any stipulations, and both Murchison and Marker told him this would not be the case.
After closing the public hearing, the six councilors present all voted in favor of the motion to accept the funds. Councilor Hugh Kirkpatrick was absent from the meeting.
