By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Steering committee members are emphasizing that there will not be a lapse in services provided by the Caribou Chamber when the City of Caribou discontinues the organization’s funding as of Saturday, Jan. 1 2011, as approved by the Caribou City Council during their Nov. 22 meeting. While the chamber will no longer house economic development — a change which has been firmly finalized — the Caribou Chamber and its executive director will be housed in the same facility and offer most of the same services (Fed Ex services are no longer offered through the Chamber and UPS will only be available until Thursday, Dec. 23) for an estimated three months during an interim period as the remaining details are finalized. Part-time chamber employees were given their one-month notice on Monday.
While the City has cut funding for the chamber as of Jan. 1, the organization’s 2010 budget should be able to accommodate operating expenses during the interim period as Chamber Director Wendy Landes continues preparing for essential Caribou events, such as the City Wide Yard Sale and the Annual Chamber Dinner.
The future of the Caribou Chamber post-interim will be decided by a Chamber member vote; members of the steering committee are currently preparing a ballot for all chamber members in good standing accompanied by an overview of the transition and recommendations made by the steering committee. The informative documents will be sent to good-standing chamber members later this month. Should chamber members reach a consensus that they want economic development to stay within chamber duties, it would be up to the chamber and its members to come up with means of funding for that facet of communal promotion.
Steering committee members Shawn Pelletier and Joseph Sleeper advise however, that keeping economic development with the chamber would be repetitive, as the city will be providing economic development, and difficult to do without specified funding from the city.
“It’s important to note that the Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a subcontractor to the city for economic development,” said CCC&I Board of Directors chair Joseph Sleeper. “We performed services for the city and the city has chosen to perform those functions in another manner.”
“The only thing that the members will be voting on are really chamber activities, and they’ll be voting on what the current Chamber Board of Directors has recommended,” Pelletier said
Chamber officials have already signed a contract with NMDC to provide administrative support for the CCC&I’s business development loan portfolio and Sleeper was adamant to emphasize that NMDC will only be providing administrative services, such as collecting payments and bookkeeping, to the USDA and FAME funds of the portfolio. (Management of loans made with city funding that were previously being handled through the CCC&I has been taken back under city administration.)
“The loan portfolio is not being given to NMDC,” he said, explaining that loan requests will still be handed by the chamber’s existing Loan Committee, which consists of one member of each bank in Caribou, and the soon-to-be-established board of directors which will oversee the future city employee handling economic development. The Loan Committee will offer their suggestion as to whether a loan should be approved or denied, but it will be the economic development board that will ultimately decide what action will be taken on a loan.
As the chamber’s current responsibilities and economic development are divided into two separate entities, members of the chamber’s current board of directors are also anticipated to separate into two new boards, one overseeing the chamber and one overseeing economic development.
While some concern has risen in chamber and community members that the economic development board will be self-perpetuated — meaning that after the completion of a three-year term, a board member can stay on the committee for as long as they choose — steering committee members explained that this is how many community board operate, such as the Planning Board.
According to Caribou City Manager Steve Buck, the draft bylaws recommended by the steering committee stipulate that there would be seven board members overseeing economic development, five elected at large and two appointed by the city council.
As economic development moves back under management of the city, it is yet to be determined how much Caribou will be spending on that facet of government, but steering committee members are confident that there will be significant net cost savings to the community.
