Caribou council approves 2025 municipal budget after department cuts and debate over capital reserves

The Caribou City Council approved the 2025 municipal budget Monday after hearing department-by-department reduction proposals intended to help close a projected $1,200,000 shortfall.

City Manager Thompson said staff had been asked to target roughly 10% in savings and told the council, “we did find that there is a projected $1,200,000 shortfall between expenses and revenues.” That shortfall prompted managers to identify specific cuts and to discuss impacts on services and capital reserves.

Public Works Director Dave, who reviewed his department’s expense and capital requests, said, “I went through my expense budget, and there really wasn't a lot to cut out of that. But I will talk about a couple of them,” and proposed reductions including $25,000 in salary lines (anticipating short staffing), $10,000 on diesel fuel, $25,000 on salt, and potential cuts to building and parking-lot reserves. He warned that deferring paving work can increase future repair costs and said the city’s road-condition score averaged in the low-to-mid 80s but that some country roads are nearer 76 percent.

The police department identified several smaller-line cuts while urging retention of certain operational items. The police presenter said the K‑9 program was a priority: the handler is out for surgery and “in order for K‑9 Ace to keep a certification, he's going to have to go to 2 trainings a month.” The department proposed deferments on a replacement cruiser and delaying some capital purchases while cautioning against cuts that would degrade response capability or officer safety items such as hotspots and communications.

The fire and ambulance presentation recommended reductions and asked council to consider long-term capital funding for ambulances and other life‑safety equipment. The fire presenter noted the rapid rise in replacement costs for ambulances and urged restoring an ambulance reserve to avoid excessive aging of emergency vehicles.

Recreation and parks staff said their expense lines are already trimmed and cautioned that further reductions would delay needed capital work such as parking-lot repairs and a future roof replacement at the rec center.

Council debate focused on whether to preserve capital/reserve accounts to avoid higher future costs. Councilor Terrio argued against deferring capital work: “I'm not in favor of taking out something that you had planned to do or whatever and push it to another year … if it needs to be done now it's going to be worse next year.” Councilor Bagley and others urged caution about cutting deeply while noting the council could reexamine the budget before setting a mill rate.

In a roll-call vote on a motion to approve the 2025 municipal budget as presented, Councilor Bagley voted No; Councilors Kelly, Lovewell, Terrio and Watson voted Aye. Motion carries, 4-1.

The council directed that departments and staff continue monitoring outside revenue (including the RSU and county portions of tax bills) and review the budget again before the final mill-rate setting if conditions change.

Ending: The council approved the budget while leaving several capital and reserve questions open for follow-up as outside funding and school and county budget outcomes become clearer.