The Rockland Report 11-01-2013

OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
 Along with the Public Works Director, we met with representatives from MDOT to discuss collaboration and improvements necessary for the Old County Road.
 Along with the City Attorney, Treatment Plant Director and a Wright-Peirce Engineering Consultant, we met with representatives from MDEP regarding permit violations at the Treatment Plant.
 Along with the Community Development Director and Harbor Master, we met with the Harbor Park Re-design Committee.
 Continued pre-construction planning for PenBay Drainage project.
 Continued with selection process for the public restrooms at the Thorndike Parking Lot.
OFFICE OF THE FINANCE DIRECTOR
 Approved Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrants.
 Audit Work.
 Met with Fish Pier Director & Police Chief on CIP Plan.
 Finance Dept. has successfully implemented direct deposit forms to be emailed to employees. This eliminates special forms and envelopes saving roughly $2500 a year in paper supplies. The savings does not include employee time spent on direct deposit forms.
OFFICE OF THE HARBORMASTER
 Replaced a number of clapboards on the building that have been broken by winter snow plowing and general wear.
 Started work on repairing the end of one of our oldest Public Landing Floats, currently stored at Snow Marine Park.
 Met with the Harbor Park redesign committee to partake in the discussion of a grant opportunity for the possible new boardwalk.
 I've started to receive back the applications for next summer's boats at the Middle Pier, they get submitted to the Harbor Management Commission for their approval.
OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR
 Processing Real Estate Transfers, parcel cards, sales book, property splits.
 Processing Personal Property accounts, updating ownership, owned items, depreciation, State 801 returns, BETE exemptions.
 Processing building permits and updating property cards and assessments.
 Analyzing qualified sales of all properties and neighborhoods.
 Completing State forms and returning for processing.
 Listening and reviewing property owner’s request.
OFFICE OF THE POLICE CHIEF
The officers responded to 193 calls for service. Rockland Police Officers responded to
eight motor vehicle crashes. Forty two (42) traffic stops and traffic violations were
conducted. The officers made 17 arrests of individuals for various offenses, to include
bail violations, criminal mischief, OUIs, drug violations, burglary, theft and arrest
warrants
 Sgt. Camporaile and Chief Boucher participated in the Nation Drug Take Back
program this past Saturday at City Hall. Approximately 75 pounds of unused
expired and unwanted mediation was turned in during the four hour period.
 Rockland officer, State Police and Knox County Sheriff’s office personnel took part
in two lockdown drills at Mid-Coast School of Technology this past week.
 Chief Boucher met with students and staff at Pen-Bay Christian School to discuss
the facility’s School Safety plans.
 Officers participated in annual firearms training and certification this past week.
 Officers worked with members of Homeland Security on security issues that impact
the City and facilitated with those operations plans.
 C.I.D. arrested female for Class B Theft and Class B Forgery from a local business.
To date it is believed that more than $48,000.00 was taken. This investigation is
ongoing at this time.
 C.I.D. arrested a juvenile male for burglary to a local business.
 C.I.D. has been assisting the Coast Guard Investigative Service regarding an
incident that occurred in Rockland involving a Coast Guard Serviceman and a
civilian. No criminal charges are expected at this time.
 C.I.D. is continuing its investigation into a possible aggravated assault that took
place on 09/30/13. This investigation has been submitted to the Knox County
District Attorney’s Office for review concerning possible criminal charges against
one of the subjects involved in the altercation.
 Sgt. Finnegan has been partnering with Camden PD on the (DRE) Drug
Recognition Expert program concerning recertification efforts.
OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 John Root attended the Maine GIS Users Group (MEGUG) fall meeting on 10/25 in
Bangor and ESRI GIS Training on 10/29 in Augusta.
 In June of this year David Kalloch was named Code Officer of the Year by the
Midcoast Code Enforcement Officers Association. The Association presented him
with a very nice plaque honoring his achievement at their meeting on 10/30.
 The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:
o 4 Building permits
o 2 Electrical permits
o 2 Plumbing permits
o 3 Sewer Connect permits
o 4 Street Excavation permits
OFFICE OF THE FISH PIER DIRECTOR
 Submitted to the Finance Department October’s metered electric bills for user
services at the fish pier.
 Monday’s wind took out Time Warner cable service to the office building. Time
Warner Cable replaced the line from the telephone pole to the building. They also
replaced the junction box and line coming into building. A new cable was
attached to the modem.
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 Department continued to work on employee evaluations.
 The Fire Chief and A/C Miceli traveled to Brunswick with Knox EMA to a preexercise
meeting for Vigilant Guard ’14.
 The Department continued its annual testing of all Department-owned fire hose.
 The Department hosted the family who submitted the winning bid for the firehouse
dinner at the Frankie’s Garage benefit.
 The Department conducted one Life Safety Code inspection.
 The Department trained on advanced airway procedures.
OFFICE OF THE SOLID WASTE DIRECTOR
 Attended the Maine Resource Recovery Association fall conference. One
interesting break out session was done by a consulting firm hired by Eco Maine.
The topic reviewed the economics of composting organics in Maine. The findings
were that, as of now, organics composting was more costly than disposal due to
collection costs and some type of curbside collection is needed to make the
greatest impact.
 Dave St. Laurent was voted in to serve another term as a member of the Board of
Directors.
 Toured the PERC plant in Orrington.
 Conducted monitoring well data collection.
 Collected Quarterly waste water samples and sent them out for analytical testing.
 Working on replacing the roll back protection at the public demo header.
 We had to replace a ruptured hydraulic line in the D5M bulldozer.
 We serviced the 1845 C case uni-loader; ordered a new radiator, serpentine belt
and parts to repair a leaking hydraulic manifold.
 Loaded and sent out to be recycled another 34 bales of cardboard.
OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 A Camden Conference (which we also co-sponsored) Community event was
held on Monday evening: Feeding the World in the Face of Climate Change,
with Jonathan Woolley, Director of the Quaker UN Office in Geneva.
 The Adult Art class by Catinka Knoth welcomed students, as did the Children’s
Drawing class which continues each Tuesday afternoon.
City Manager’s Weekly Report
Page 4 of 5
 Dan O’Connor offered a class on how to check out an e-book; so many showed up that Patty King was called on to assist. At least one participant obtained a Library card as a direct result of the class.
 Patty King read a Halloween story to small visitors and their caregivers.
 Gail Boukary brought her 4th grade class from the South School, to learn more about NC Wyeth, following a visit to the Farnsworth to view his Robin Hood paintings.
 We had a visit from Head Start kids, who listened to a couple of stories read by their staff. Linda Barnes read several stories by pre-arrangement, to some children in costume and caretakers who visited from the Toy Library.
 I bought treats to put out for anyone in costume, on Halloween, though some un-costumed patrons always partake, as well.
 Patty King spent Thursday on North Haven, as per our agreement with the Community School.
 There a still a few tickets left for the Friends of Rockland Public Library iPad raffle! Only 200 tickets will be sold and the winner will receive a brand new iPad. The winner will be announced at the silent Tree Auction on November 30.
 Upcoming events of note: as part of our first-ever participation in World Kindness Week, Jean Young will be cooking and reading Stone Soup; a Camden Conference Discussion on Water Scarcity.
 Did you know—Library staff participates in WRFR’s Love My Library show, the last Friday of the month, at 10 am, to let you know what’s happening the following month?
OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
 The Soccer program is now over for the year. It was a good season and things went very well for the number of volunteers we use to make this program work.
 The Game room repairs are being finalized and we are working with the Fire Department, Code office, the Sprinkler Company, and Seacoast Security for code and safety compliance.
 Basketball sign-ups will go out to schools next week. The press release about the changes in the program will be in the paper this week.
 I am working with the Dance Instructor here at the Recreation Building to make sure the new dance room will be to the satisfaction of all parties that will rent the room now and in the future.
OFFICE OF THE GENERAL ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATOR
 Made appointments for clients who did not have any scheduled
 Met with clients who had scheduled appointments
 Handled General Assistance inquiries
 Applied for SSDI Interim Reimbursements
 Updated General Assistance Paperwork and client files
OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
 Completed loaming back of sidewalk on Claremont Street.
 Replaced deteriorated galvanized metal drain pipe on Glen Street approximately 100 linear feet in length with 30 inch reinforced plastic pipe.
 Stored all picnic tables and many trash cans for winter season.
 Assisted Library with various end of the season tasks including storing benches and chairs, checking gutters, etc.
 Picked up trash including roadside.
 Cold patched roads for two days.
 Meeting with MDOT in Augusta regarding Old County Road and compact zone designation.
 Competed 3 ½ days of street sweeping.
 Conducted roadside limb pruning for 2 ½ days.
 Mowed & weed whacked grassy area near Ferry Terminal Park.
 Met with Community Development Director regarding future plans for various projects throughout City.
 Mechanics working on installing headgear for plows on several trucks, changing summer tires to winter tires on equipment/vehicles, going over snow blowers.
 Next week we plan to start City wide leaf collection on Monday which will continue most of the month of November; set up of voting booths on Monday and will dismantle on them Wednesday.
OFFICE OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
 Submitted and continued to develop grant applications for engineering boat ramp and Snow Marine Park, portions of Harbor Trail, Boardwalk at Harbor Park.
 Met with Harbor Park Redesign Committee on grant for Boardwalk at Harbor Park.
 Met with web site developers to discuss changes to Community Development web pages and public outreach, notably for Brownfields Program.
 Met with local property developers and a business to discuss improvements to properties and business.
 Met with possible new small business interests, discussed regional microloan funds, other investment sources of capital.
 Completed close out on CDBG Downtown Revitalization Program.
 Advised and finalized forms for bidding and contracting of portions of the Community for Maine’s Future Program, with City Attorney.
OFFICE OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY DIRECTOR
 Worked with Kruger helping to setup their Actiflo treatment system pilot equipment. Kruger will be on site for three weeks to evaluate BOD and TSS removal efficiencies possible with their system.
 EII, Inc. continued upgrades to Park Street and Glenwood Avenue pump stations.
 Met with FMC to discuss improvements to our treatment process, will meet again.
 Surveyed Broadway by Holmes Street to determine if a sewer line can be installed in this area.
 Worked with Wright Pierce to develop a quote for a sanity sewer evaluation study.