County holding economic own

15 years ago

County holding economic own

By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer

    CARIBOU — After accountant Tim Poitras of Chester Kearney, gave presentations of the 2008 general audit, the FY 2008-09 unorganized territory audit and the FY 2008-09 jail operations audit during the March 17 County Commissioners meeting in Caribou, commissioners Paul Underwood and Norman Fournier agreed with Commission Chair Paul Adams when he said , “It seems that we’re holding our own in this bad economy.” 

    According to the audits, the county is certainly holding its own.
    “Overall it’s positive, and quite a bit positive on the county side of things,” Poitras said
    Keeping with the positive-cost-effectiveness “theme” of the meeting, the County Administrator Douglas Beaulieu informed the commissioners that the Dispatch Relocation Project in Houlton (from 15 Broadway to 25 School Street, which is the newly named Sheriff’s Office Building) is not only up and running in the new building, but the project came in under budget.
    “We did that project for considerably less that I would have thought,” Beaulieu told the commissioners, adding that the transition went smoothly.
    Beaulieu also reported that the county is on track to submit a Community Development Block Grant application for the territory of Sinclair on April 2. If awarded fully, the grant would provide $250,000 for the community to assist lower income residents in making their homes more energy efficient.
    The commissioners were also informed that citizens of Wade have been talking about possibly deorganizing. Fournier, the current representative of Wade, has been representing the town since 1989.
    The next meeting of the Aroostook County Commissioners will take place on Wedesday, April 7 at 5:30 p.m. in Houlton.