By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — While reviewing a list of city fees for potential revision during the March 25 City Council meeting, the group listened to a proposed fee schedule presented by Director of the Recreation Committee Susan White.
The proposed fees would increase Rec Department revenues by an estimated $14,000.
“We’re hopeful that in conjunction with our budget [being] $15,000 less than last year’s budget, that this fee scale will help meet the needs that you put before us,” White told the councilors.
Pertaining to activities like soccer, tennis and baseball, the committee proposed a fee of $10 per child per program.
“On average, kids are enrolling in about five — if not more — programs a year, so we thought we’d offer a $50 per child annual pass,” White said, clarifying that the season pass would enable the child to enroll in as many programs as they wanted to for one calendar year.
The non-resident fee per program would be $25, with the cost of an annual pass being $125.
Pool use is separate from the presented program fees, and the committee proposed a $1 fee per person, per general swim; it was figured on average that the pool is open for 30 days in the summer and the committee used that figure to determine a $20 season pass.
To enroll in swimming lessons, as two three-week swimming courses are offered in the summer, residents would pay $10 per child per session; as White explained, the fee scale is coordinated so that if a child wanted to take one session of swimming lessons and have a season pass to the pool, it would cost $25; that bumps up to $35 if the youth elected to take both sessions of lessons with the season pass.
Under the tentative fee scale, non-residents would be charged $1 per general swim and $25 per lesson session.
When the council first began discussion regarding assigning fees for recreation programs, councilor David Martin suggested that a scholarship fund be established so that underprivileged youths could still participate in recreation activities.
“Mr. Martin quickly initiated the idea of having some kind of assistance and followed through on his promise — we appreciate that,” White said, explaining that the rec department was able to partner with RSU 39 to use eligibility for free school lunch as the qualifying factor for financial assistance.
White explained that when parents fill out an application for program assistance, there’s a place to sign which allows rec officials to contact the school to determine free lunch eligibility, and stated that they do have a system in place to determine eligibility for youths newly enrolled in the school system.
The assistance program would allow a child to receive a $20 stipend per year that would pay their way into two programs; White explained that it could also be used toward the purchase of a $50 annual pass.
White and the recreation committee received praise from councilors on their diligence in developing a fee scale and reducing the recreation department’s budget by $15,000.
“You really sharpened your pencils this year,” Councilor Kenneth Murchison told White.
The recreation committee wasn’t the only group bending city council’s ear about financials; Aroostook Agency on Aging Director Steve Farnham voiced his concerns during the public comments portion of the meeting and asked that the council reverse the decision made last fall to cut the $7,253 funding that the city has provided annually since 1982.
“Over the past year, we provided services for more than 400 individuals here in the city of Caribou,” Farnham said, explaining that one out of every five Caribou residents is over the age of 65. “Most of those people are taxpayers in the city; they don’t make demands on a lot of other city services, and it’s the Agency on Aging that sometimes stands between them and a loss of their independence,” he added.
Farnham described the services the Agency on Aging provides to Caribou residents, from 9,000 meals delivered to homebound people to the 140 people who utilize the Medicaid D outreach clinics in the fall that help people make decisions about enrollment and prescription drug plans under Medicaid.
“This is a complicated process for a lot of people and without our help … these people would be hard pressed to make those decisions on their own,” Farnham told the councilors. “We find that the average savings is about $1,100 per year by getting people into the right drug plan that makes a difference to them.”
He also reminded councilors that if Caribou does not contribute local matching support to the Agency, the Agency would not commit services to Caribou aside from the services they’re mandated to provide.
“I plead to you, I know you’re in a bind, but we’re all in a bind in terms of what expectations are and what the limited resources are,” Farnham said. “The funds that the city provides to us, $7,253, that’s a chunk of money, but again it’s critical to us for matching purposes.”
Later in their meeting, the councilors approved to provide $7,253 to the Aroostook Area on Aging.
The next meeting of the Caribou City Council is Monday, April 8 at 7 p.m. in the Councilors’ Chambers.
