A Caribou budget committee suggested cutting in half nearly $2 million in capital funding requests for 2025.
Capital expense committee member and Deputy Mayor Jody Smith shared the recommendations during the Caribou City Council meeting on Feb. 24.
City departments requested a total of $1.9 million in capital expense funding this year. Caribou Fire and Ambulance requested the most — $1.3 million — largely to go toward replacing vehicles and equipment. The committee recommended cutting $858,000 from the department’s requests.
“We identified some pretty heavy cuts in the capital budget to keep our costs down,” Smith said. “We would like to have third-party inspections done on some of this equipment.”
In his initial budget presentation on Jan. 27, Fire and Ambulance Chief Brian Lajoie discussed the requests. The largest was $550,000 for a new ladder truck. He also asked for $625,000 toward repairs and eventual replacement of ambulances and other vehicles.
The capital expense committee suggested denying the ladder truck purchase and investigating leasing, along with cutting $295,000 from vehicle repair and replacement, and using existing reserve funds for some other expenses.
Members recommended some equipment requests, including $34,000 for radio replacement, $25,000 for oxygen bottles, $28,600 for turnout gear and jacket replacement and $8,800 for Jaws of Life batteries.
The committee endorsed other departmental capital requests without changes, including $25,000 for municipal building reserves, $19,600 for Caribou Public Library improvements, $89,100 for Caribou Police Department equipment and vehicles, $453,000 for public works and $43,500 for recreation and parks reserves.
Councilors took no action on the recommendations. Residents can weigh in on the 2025 budget during a public hearing at the March 10 council meeting.
The cuts may be wise in light of recent events in Washington, Councilor Paul Towle said, referring to the heated exchange last week between President Trump and Gov. Janet Mills over Trump’s threats to cut federal funding to punish Maine for allowing transgender student athletes to compete in alignment with their gender identity.
Though it is too soon to tell how, or if, any such cuts would affect towns, local governments should be informed and be prepared to protect themselves, Towle said.
“We don’t have to be in a panic mode, but I think the citizens of Caribou would appreciate us being proactive,” he said.
In other business, the council voted to authorize City Manager Penny Thompson to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for a grant to purchase snow removal equipment at the Caribou Municipal Airport. The grant would pay 95 percent of the cost, with the state of Maine and the city each contributing 2.5 percent.
The equipment would include a carrier vehicle and attachable snowblower, plow and broom. Four companies bid on the project: Beauregard Equipment at $501,100; Milton CAT, $320,825; United, $506,829; and M-B Companies, $1.02 million. The next step is to review the bids, Thompson said.
The council also approved a service contract with the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development to conduct a housing survey.
During a housing symposium last February, city leaders discussed the need to increase affordable housing. People attending thought a survey could help discern what constituted affordable and what parts of Caribou could be suitable for new developments.
“At that time, the Department of Economic Development had this Housing Opportunity Grant Program opportunity open,” Thompson said. “We applied in March [of 2024], and in October we were notified that we had a high-scoring application.”
The city received a contract on Feb. 20 and now needs to find someone to do the study, she said.
The group also approved a city council code of conduct resolution. The vote came about after November’s municipal elections, in which residents voted to amend the city charter to require councilors to adopt a code of conduct every January. Among other elements, the document addresses conflicts of interest and how councilors should represent the city.
The next council meeting is planned at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 10. The public budget hearing will take place that night, and the council will vote on the budget on March 17.
