By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Spring cleanup may seem to be a long ways away, but the subject was front and center of the City Council meeting on Monday night as councilors discussed potential changes for the annual brush removal program.
Ultimately, this year’s spring cleanup will be just like last year’s with one exception — each residence is limited to about one truckload of branches, leaves, sticks and other wood-based yard waste for the city to remove.
Neither the councilors nor city officials anticipated that the one-load limitation would impact the brush hauling utilized by the vast majority of participants.
“One truckload” in this instance refers to one of the large, construction-sized trucks the city uses to haul snow —the bed’s 20 feet long, five feet high and eight feet wide; if that bed were to be filled with water, it’s 800 cubic feet.
As Councilor Kenneth Murchison explained, those trucks can fit the amount of the debris equal to about an entire tree.
“Most people have a pile the size of a table — they clean up their yard and they haul it out,” he said. “But if you’re taking down your whole tree line, and you want to put it out on the side of the road … you’re going to have to pay for that.”
The city will not be charging to remove over one-load of debris this spring, rather, the removal would need to come from a private contractor or other outside party.
As Mayor Gary Aiken reiterated, the majority of residents that participate in the debris pickup have a reasonable-sized pile that goes along with standard yard maintenance.
“Ninety-nine percent of residences have an amount that could fit in a pickup, but there are the rare exceptions,” he qualified, alluding to some tremendously large piles of debris the city has picked up in previous years, resulting in multiple truckloads from one dwelling.
The council agreed to go ahead this season with a one-load-per-residence limit, but the discussion about possible fees for the service are anticipated to continue later this year.
Posing the request to Public Works Director David Ouellette, Councilor Philip McDonough asked that the department compile information for next fall’s budget process.
“We’ll determine at that time what we’re going to do, because you’ve already factored (spring debris pickup) into the budget this year — you’ve already taxed the city residents to do that,” McDonough explained. “I don’t think we should be paying in addition.”
The extra cost to the city stemming from yard waste removal is about $600 to $700 day.
“The men are there, the equipment is there, so the only real item of expense is the fuel,” Ouellette described.
Councilor Joan Theriault admittedly put Ouellette “on the spot” during the meeting, citing that a couple of years ago, Ouellette was asked whether or not he would continue the brush-hauling initiative if he had his druthers, and he’d expressed that he would discontinue the service. Theriault asked if he still felt the same today.
Giving the room a chuckle, Ouellette responded, “Well, time heals.”
“To be honest with you, once springtime comes, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the public works department,” he responded, describing how there’s always an excess of work to be done, particularly when the weather is severe. “But it is a service that I think our community enjoys.”
“It certainly helps the appearance of the community,” added Aiken added.
Agreeing with Aiken, Ouellette added that if the city doesn’t offer the debris-hauling services, “people will be burning it in their backyards and there will be messes, so I think that we should still do it,” he concluded.
The next meeting of the Caribou City Council is slated for Monday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Councilors Chambers.
