The Rockland Report 02-01-13

OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
 Along with the Mayor, Police Chief, Fire Chief and representatives from other communities within the RSU, State Police and County we attended the school safety meeting.
 Along with the Community Development Director, we met with Amy Powers from Cruise Maine.
 Made a brief appearance at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in order to meet with some state agency and business representatives engaged in the tourism industry.
 Attended the MMA LPC meeting in Augusta.
 Attended the REDAC meeting.
 We continue the early stages of budget development and work on incorporating a CIP plan.
 We continue our efforts to reach out to local businesses.
 The Ulmer Park plaque, which was damaged last year when a car hit the boulder holding it, has been repaired and returned to the City. New England Castings of Hiram was able to restore the plaque to its original form, retaining the patina and look of the plaque, along with the historic medallion commemorating the Spanish American War. In addition, New England Castings provided decorative “rosettes” to be placed in each corner – the original rosettes were lost years ago. Public Works will re-install the plaque when the weather allows.

OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
 Dodgeball had ten teams play this week and what a blast everyone had. Lots of laughing and joking around. Some teams stayed after the official games were over and played for another 45 minutes.
 Indoor soccer will start here on Sunday. There will be three age groups and adult time next week when the program is set up. This week is purely organizational.
 The Pee Wee basketball season is in the final weekend of regular season and the playoffs begin next week. The Championship game is scheduled for the 13th of February; boys at 5:30 pm and girls at 7:00 pm.

OFFICE OF THE POLICE CHIEF
In addition to responding to 165 calls for services this past week and making five arrests; summons were made for various offenses, including drug violations, probation violations and warrants. Officers issued summons for three traffic offenses. Officers handled three traffic crashes and covered six animal complaints. Along with other duties and shift assignments, members of the police department were involved in the following highlights this past week:
 Chief Boucher attended RSU#13 meeting regarding safety issues within the school facilities and community at large.
 Sergeant Finnegan has been working with personnel from the DHHS Lab, the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and Southern Maine EMS in the development of a program which will train law enforcement officers to become Blood Technicians. The lack of availability of qualified Blood Technicians is a serious problem for law enforcement across Maine. The plan is to conduct a three day training in the Portland area in March 2013. After an assessment of this initial training session, regional training for other areas of the State will be reviewed.
 Deputy Chief Tower attended a Knox County Communications Center promotion board meeting.
 Traffic Enforcement Officer Troy Peasley participated in the medal ceremonies for Special Olympics winter games at Sugarloaf USA on Monday.
 Chief Boucher met with representatives of the Bureau of Highway Safety and Lincoln County Emergency management concerning future training plans.
 Detectives’ made a felony theft arrest concerning a case involving Dowling/ Walsh Gallery.


OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 The property at 59 Camden Street, formerly Harry French’s Garage, has been sold and the new owner has inquired about opening a convenience store, which will most likely require Planning Board approval.
 Dave attended the Midcoast Code Enforcement Officers Association meeting.
 Dave also attended the Rockland Economic Development Advisory Committee Workshop “A New Vision for Maine’s Commercial Strips”.
 There was one complaint filed this week.
 The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:
o Three Building permits
o Two Electrical permits
o Two Plumbing permits
o One Street Excavation permit

OFFICE OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
 Additional data research and preparation of Strategic Work Plan.
 Follow up on revisions and additional review of TIF programs.
 Attended Economic Development Council of Maine, as Board Member, to network with State Community Economic Development professionals.
 Met with Cruise Maine.
 Attended Governor’s Conference on Tourism; connecting with tourism industry professionals.
 Outreach and follow up on some potential redevelopment projects.
 Attended REDAC and Camden Street meeting.

OFFICE OF THE GENERAL ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATOR
 Handled 24 different calls, walk-ins and e-mails. Handled 5 different appointments.
 Updated client files.

OFFICE OF THE FISHERMAN’S PIER DIRECTOR
 Coordinated with Public Works on the removal of traps in the upper storage lot.
 February’s task will be the removal of all bait coolers from the upper storage lot to make room for additional parking.

OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR
 There is a tentative agreement with the Aldersgate Church.
 There is one appeal to the BOAR for 21 Acadia Drive.
 I have one appeal to review from 11 Sunrise Summit.

OFFICE OF THE FINANCE DIRECTOR
 Approved Payroll Warrant.
 Approved Acct Payable Warrant.
 Started FY14 Budget Calculations.
 Finalized Loan Paper Work with Key Bank for Sewer Camera, Summer Street Sewer Work and Library Chimney.
 Payroll Department finished check writing conversion to Laser printing which will save money in check stock. Direct Deposit slips are now printed on plain paper and will soon be emailed to employees for even greater savings.
 Worked with Tyler Forms for Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and General Billing templates. Changing the format of forms to print on plain paper and to get away from special ordering forms.

OFFICE OF THE HARBORMASTER
 A good week spent mostly processing mooring permit renewals with people coming in to renew their mooring permits.
 Worked with a representative of the Cruising Club of America on a list of the harbor's amenities for their guide in preparation for their August visit to Rockland.
 Mailed out most of the commercial mooring permit renewals.
 Finished the improvements to the public restroom's winter drainage.

OFFICE OF THE FIRE CHIEF
In addition to responding to the normal flow of fire and EMS calls, apparatus checks, cleaning, repairs and maintenance to the fleet and cleaning and maintenance of the quarters, the following occurred:
 The Fire Chief attended a meeting hosted by the mayor with school officials, municipal and county officials, law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies and other stakeholders regarding plans and planning for instances of violence in our schools.
 The Fire Chief met again as part of the committee responsible for hiring a fire chief for the Town of Rockport. As Rockport Fire is a critical cog in our mutual aid machine, seeing that the Department maintains its strong capabilities is of great importance to the City. Responded with B-Shift on Saturday morning to a small fire at the Transfer Station. With great assistance from Radar and his front end loader, the burning pile was separated, hose streams were applied, and the fire quickly extinguished with minimum impact on the Transfer Station customer.
 Shifts conducted training on emergency escape procedures from the upper floors of burning buildings should conditions force them to abandon a search and should the interior stairs be blocked by heavy fire or a partial collapse of the structure.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
 Received two pallets of grass seed donated by Home Depot to Public Works for use during spring cleanup.
 Picked up approximately 200 private lobster traps from the Fish Pier for storage in the compound behind city hall.
 Two environmental technicians hired on Monday. One of the technicians is coming from the Public Works Department and the new vacancy that is created is currently being advertised for this Light Equipment Operator position.
 City wide sanding call-in Monday night.
 Attended Knox County Public Works working group meeting at Rockport Town Office.
 Wind and rain storm on Thursday created many problems mostly related to downed trees and limbs. Also, there were many traffic signal issues that AD Electric was attending to.
 James Crowley from DEP performed his annual inspection of Fish Pier (snow dump site) and documentation at the Public Works Department related to our snow dump license. No issues to report as we are in compliance with our permit.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 I’ve been reviewing applications for the Library Technician/Adult Programming position. We’ve already received around 45 applications, with a week to go before closing, and some major ads to be placed this week.
 Book Soup attracted eight participants this past Tuesday; serving soup, bread and book discussions, it’s held on the third Tuesday (usually) of the month.
 Please don’t tell the other therapy dogs, but my favorite, Maggie, the lovely lurcher participated in the Wednesday Story Time along with her handler, Steve Seekins.
 An e-Audiobook Download Demo was held Thursday afternoon.
 The first committee meeting of Poetry Month Rockland 2013 was held, as was a meeting to discuss and coordinate Summer Reading events.
 This Thursday Evening’s Arts & Cultural Events program is a presentation of the film Seven Minutes In Heaven
 The Library is participating in the 2nd Annual “Take Your Child to the Library Day”; there’ll be “fun zones”, treats, guessing games, and much more. We are also promoting library cards for babies, to foster a life-long love of reading. I am quite . Post-Film Discussion with Bill Halpin & Saskia Huising will follow. This event is co-sponsored with Camden Conference Community Events.
enamored of the graphic for the event, and excited to be issuing cards to the very young.
 On Sunday, we will be co-sponsoring (with the Ashwood Waldorf School) the first of a two part film series: The Challenge of Rudolph Steiner

OFFICE OF THE SOLID WASTE DIRECTOR .
 Scheduled the first meeting with St. Germain & Collins to begin work on the concept plan for the future construction and demolition handling and transfer area.
 On 1/26/13 at about 11:00 a.m., smoke was detected by the public landfill header. Solid Waste Staff notified the Rockland Fire department as outlined in our operations manual. The fire was most likely due to stove ash being dumped over the header, on top of some old discarded furniture and building debris. Winds were out of the west causing the material to fan and ignite. Overall the fire was fairly small and the Fire Department responded quickly and doused the flames. The scorched material was moved south, out of the active are of the landfill, to ensure it was extinguished. The scorched material was inspected periodically for the remainder of the day and was also inspected the next day on 1/27/13 to ensure no sign of fire was present. More temporary signage indicating where to place ash was put in place as well as additional ash barrels. I am having a banner made to instruct the public on proper ash disposal.
 Replaced the crank case cover and temperature probe in the Case Skid steer.
 Submitted waste water flow and analytical waste water results for January.
 On 1/31/13 the facility lost power due to a tree that downed a telephone pole and power line on Park Street. Power was out from 8:15 am to 2:15 pm. High winds and loss of power created a challenging day.
 Collected water level data from 12 monitoring wells and 23 piezometers.
 Continued work on annual reports.

OFFICE OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT DIRECTOR
 Met with DEP to discuss possible changes to our draft MEPDES permit.
 Replaced a malfunctioning broken belt sensor on the gravity belt thickener.
 EII was on site for SCADA and PLC ladder logic programming for the upgrade project.
 Scheduled interviews for the Maintenance Mechanic position.
 Started reviewing bids for the sewer inspection equipment.
 Filled the remaining Environmental Technician position.

CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
 Library
o Most of the work from Cordjia’s CO#4 has been completed. Tim from Maine Controls continues to work on and refine some programming issues, but we can definitely see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Wearing his hat as Chair of the Energy Committee, Larry Pritchett continues to inspect the most
recently completed work, as well as continuing the inspection of the radiant floor manifolds.
 Recreation Center
o Poor weather has held up the work on the flashing this week.
o The good news is that despite the amount of rain we got in the last two days the RDNA office window did not leak. The cap was completed last week and seems to have stopped the water from coming in at the corner of the window where it had previously been leaking. The small amount of damage to the sheetrock can now be repaired.
o The new front lights have been installed and they look very nice. The front entrance appearance is much improved.