By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU, Maine — After about three months worth of Saturday meetings envisioning the future of Caribou, a volunteer group of community members will present their vision and mission statement to the city’s planning board tonight.
Their work touches different topics and goals, but one bullet point of the project seemed quintessential: “promoting a community where you can grow your family, your business and yourself,” read moderator Kathy Mazzuchelli. If that sentence sounded polished, that’s because it’s been scrutinized for the past three months — every comma, every syllable and every intention in the mission statement and the vision has been thoroughly discussed, as their findings will be an important part in developing Caribou’s comprehensive plan.
The visioning committee’s goal was not to cite specific projects and intentions, rather to form general concepts of what the city needs to be, moving forward.
“We have to keep in mind the purpose of these bullet points is to be generic to allow the planning board to build specific strategies around them that are more detailed,” Mazzuchelli said.
Visioning Committee Member Philip McDonough simplified the goal further: “we develop the bullet (point), the planning board develops the strategy.”
Assistant City Manager Tony Mazzucco explained that even if the planning board votes to adopt the vision and mission statement for the city’s comprehensive plan, there are still several steps toward the document’s completion, and it will need approval from both the city council and the state.
“The planning board saying that the visioning process is (satisfactorily) concluded would be a good step in the process,” Mazzucco told the committee during their Feb. 4 meeting.
The process of developing the material has reflected what community is all about, in the opinion of Mazzuchelli.
“When you look at the eclectic group of people that we have here … what’s amazing to me is that as you define your community, there are many similarities coming out of that diverse group of people — which is probably why we all live here,” she said. “I think this (visioning statement and mission statement) really do reflect what you people feel are the strengths of your community and what you’d like to see for continued growth.”
“It’s really kind of a fun process,” Mazzuchelli added, giving kudos to the committee members. “It seemed a little overwhelming at first, but you really did a good job and should be commended for your input.
“This is what community’s all about.”
