Caribou Utilities District trustees approve 2025 budget, elect officers amid questions about January expenses

The Caribou Utilities District Board of Trustees on Feb. 12 approved the district'025 budget, elected officers and approved January minutes and financial statements while debating whether January payroll and other timing issues distorted early-year expense figures.

The vote to adopt the 2025 budget was taken after discussion of line items that trustees said appear high for January. Trustee David Martin moved to approve the budget; the motion was seconded and approved (board recorded the vote as unanimous; exact counts were not specified in the transcript). The board separately moved and approved the January monthly minutes and the January financial statements.

Why this matters: the budget sets 2025 spending levels for both the water and wastewater enterprises. Trustees noted several January figures that, if they persist, would push annual spending well above the adopted amounts and asked staff and the auditor to reconcile timing and payroll anomalies before the next reporting period.

Board discussion and staff explanations Trustees pressed staff about several line items. They singled out a $27,000 “miscellaneous subscriptions, dues and fees” line in the water account and asked for detail about what drives that amount. Staff said some fees are mandatory (examples cited: bond bank charges and GIS software) and…