The Rockland Report September 5, 2014

OFFICE OF THE ACTING CITY MANAGER/FINANCE DIRECTOR
 Approved Payroll Warrant.
 Preparing for Year End – audit work.
 Inspected Work at Snow Marine Park.
 Attended Agenda Setting Meeting with Council.
 Met with Key Bank Facilities Manager on their private storm water
catch basins located in the Key Bank Parking Lot – need to be connected to new
storm water line on Winter Street during streetscape construction.
 Met with MeDot Representatives on parking issue with Ferry Service.
 Attending meeting with staff and DEP on Waste Water License & Fines.
 Met/spoke with Citizens on the following concerns:
o Repurchasing Bond from 1934
o Engine Quarry Concerns –who owns what portion

OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL FISH PIER DIRECTOR
 No permits were issued this week.
 The f/v western sea has offloaded 800,000 pounds of herring.
 The f/v western wave has offloaded 600,000 pounds of herring.
 The price per pound for new shell lobster is $3.60.
 Submitted to the Finance Department user bills on metered electric, dockage,
and 2nd and final payments for herring carriers permits for calendar year 2014.

OFFICE OF THE HARBORMASTER
 Settled into a bit more of a regular fall schedule – lots of boats during the day –coming and going – not that many at night. City rental moorings only about half
full, though the foggy days kept us very busy.
 Pulled a slowly sinking lobster boat/yacht off its mooring and into the Public
Landing to pump her out and tighten the stuffing box to stop the leak. The owner
came down and apologized.
 Pulled a small skiff off Sandy Beach and reunited her with her owner.
 Started to see the return from our mooring renewal reminder letters and processed 10 more late renewals.
 Started checking the mooring field for other unpaid moorings to make sure there are no new ones that aren't complying with our rules.
 Got the Harbormaster's boat's carburetors cleaned to see if that returns our boat to full power.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 We are running as fast as we can, just to stay in place (a la Through the Looking Glass—“If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”).
 We are preparing for a significant change in the Library’s ILS (Integrated Library System), as we, along with the nearly sixty other Minerva libraries in Maine, move from one software platform to another.
 Catinka Knoth’s Children’s drawing class theme was “Monarch butterflies and
butterfly migration.”
 Jean Young reports that Judith Anderson read many stories to a comfortable
collection of children, moms, dads, and Grammies: Down to the Sea with Mr.
Magee by Chris Van Dusen, I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, Don’t Let the
Pigeon Drive the Bus! By Mo Willems, Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson, and Where Is Catkin? by Janet Lord. Judith mentioned to the adults in the audience how important it is to vary the reading, adding poetry, and non-fiction to the offering.
 Jean Young held the first of four (Wednesday mornings in September) library skills classes.
 I attended the Agenda Setting meeting of Council.
 This Thursday evening’s Arts & Cultural Events program was a concert with folk duo Dusty and Joanna, along with Ray Montana.
 Janet Corcoran held a Book Covering workshop, with materials and snacks
provided for all 5th through 12th graders on Sunday.
 The time is NOW—to vote for the Maine Readers’ Choice Award; you have until September 15 to select Benediction by Kent Haruf; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt; The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Weck; or TransAtlantic by Colum McCann. Register your vote here.
 Upcoming events—Camden Conference Community Program; Fall Farm Festival for children.

OFFICE OF THE FIRE CHIEF
In addition to responding to the general response to fire and EMS calls, conducting
apparatus checks, daily cleaning, routine repairs and maintenance to the fleet and
of the quarters, the following occurred:
 On Friday C-Shift removed the bed from our Utility truck so that rust issue
underneath could be addressed. In what seems to be an odd situation, the rails
that support he bed are completely rusted through while the underside of the
actual bed looks almost new with no rust. A/C Elwell will be having the new rails
fabricated for installation by C-Shift later this month, as replacing the bed or
having the work done elsewhere was significantly more money.
 Over the past week, we’ve interviewed and brought three new call division
members on board. One already has firefighter training and can be utilized very
shortly, while the other two will be taking the regional Firefighter Academy this
winter. These are the first new call members we’ve added in a few years.
 On Monday we began the process to seek answers from Ford regarding our
newest ambulance chassis’ motor. The unit has gone into a “limp” mode for
protection of the motor a few times. When the truck does this, it cannot be driven
over 30 mph. Each times it’s been taken to Rockland Ford and they can find no
issue, cannot replicate the issue and can find no record in the trucks computer
history. Two of the times this has occurred have been enroute to medical calls and thankfully a second unit was immediately available so that timely patient was not affected. Due to our inability to get an answer and mistrust of the unit’s reliability with no answers, we’ve started to seek answers from a higher authority. This issue appears to be widespread among Ford diesel chassis’ and still no answers are readily available.
 On Wednesday shift members participated in a webinar training that went over
some changes in tactics regarding how we fight fires based on numerous studies
and experiments conducted by UL and NIST in conjunction with FDNY and the
Chicago FD. These changes are long overdue as most of our tactics were based
on fires fought in the 1940’s which do not account for the modern fire environment where plastics are the predominant fuel. Many good things will come from this as
we finally can see evidence-based tactics being proven.
 On Wednesday evening Rockland FD hosted our mutual aid partners from the
Rockport for a live fire training drill on LP gas fires. Participants worked in teams to safely shut off gas to the live fire, as unburned LP gas is often more dangerous than a burning leak.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
 City wide trash receptacle and building pickup for two days.
 Mowed city property on Limerock Street and Thomaston Street.
 Roadside trash pickup for ½ day.
 Replaced two catch basins and 175 feet of 18” diameter drain culvert in Snow
Marine Park for a total of 4½ crew days. Included loam, seed, and hay.
 Installing four bicycle racks. Sis Reed Park, Public Landing, Snow Marine Park, and Sandy Beach Park. All the racks were purchased from Side Country Sports at cost as part of a grant for the Harbor Trail.
 Dropped off 2012 Case Backhoe at Beauregard Equipment in Bangor for warranty repair work.
 Cleaning catch basins all week with a crew. We are now approx. half way
completed with cleaning (removing grit from sumps) of all city owned catch
basins.
 Roadside mowing for three days. Purchased a 3-point hitch trimmer mower
attachment to better assist with weed removal under and around guard rails.
 Removed pole mounted flower pots on Main Street and Park Street for the season.
 Cold patch work for Harbormaster at South End boat ramp.
 Sweeping streets for 1½ days.
 Unable to locate a used engine for 2007 GMC dump truck. Have an estimate to install new engine ($18,000) and replace transmission ($4,000). Have difficulty justifying cost and decide to park truck. Hoping a used engine may become available in future.

OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 Dave Kalloch attended the joint EDAC/Comprehensive Planning Committee
Meeting 8/28/14.
 John Root attended the Planning Board Meeting on 9/2/14 and the Agenda
Setting City Council Meeting 9/3/14.
 There were two complaints filed this week.
 The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:
o 5 Building permits
o 1 Driveway permit
o 2 Electrical permits
o 1 Home Occupation permit
o 2 Plumbing permits

OFFICE OF THE POLICE CHIEF
The officers responded to 260 calls for service. Rockland Police Officers responded to
10 motor vehicle crashes and 14 Animal complaints. Thirty-Seven (37) traffic stops and traffic violations were conducted. The officers made 18 arrests of individuals for various offenses, to include Bail violations, Protection from abuse violations, Theft Offenses, Probation violations, Warrants of Arrest, Drug offenses and OUI.
 I have reviewed our grant programs concerning compliance with State and
Federal reporting requirements.
 The department is in the process of finalizing our policy and procedures update review requirements. We plan to be finalized by Nov. 1, 2014.
 The department is preparing for another hiring process for a patrol officer
opening. We have been working with the Personnel board setting up interview
times and dates.
 DC Tower has met with security protection systems vendors concerning our
building here at 1 Police Plaza.
 Detectives have completed training on the CENTRICE drug analysis system. This device allows for the analysis of both prescription and illicit drug composition and identification.
 Officers and US Coast Guard investigative services have been conducting an
unattended death investigation that occurred on board a vessel within the
harbor.

OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
 The summer staff has returned to school or other jobs so we are down to a small
crew for the fall.
 The soccer fields at Old County Road have been set up and we have started signups at the Recreation building. The forms have also gone out to the schools and we will be starting games in a week or so.
 Work at Snow Marine Park is moving forward and this will hopefully remedy the problem and we can reopen the park very soon.
 The mural in the gym is very near completion and we will be hosting an event at the end of September to recognize all the people who worked on this project and invite the public to see how wonderful it has turned out.

OFFICE OF THE GENERAL ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATOR
 Filed reports with Department of Health & Human Services.
 Handled General Assistance inquiries.
 Met with clients who had scheduled appointments.
 Made appointments for clients who did not have any scheduled.
 Updated General Assistance paperwork and client files.

OFFICE OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
 Follow up on site visit with potential new business seeking to relocate to Rockland.
 Assist in coordinating site visit for business considering a new venture in Rockland.
 Revisions and completion of draft recommendations on sign plan on behalf of
Rockland Main Street Design Committee; coordinate and discuss with Committee Chair for scheduling meeting with Committee.
 Follow up and final planning and scheduling of Thorndike Parking lot project with Landmark Engineers.
 Meeting and follow up with American Legion and Midcoast Area Veterans
Memorial regarding design of new walkway and monument on Talbot Avenue.
 Follow up coordination and planning with consultant and Farnsworth Art Museum on plans for Cultural Leadership Forum and Community Listening Meetings.
 Drafting of Maine Arts Commission Creative Community Economic Development grant application to support Cultural Planning program.
 Meeting with owners of Thorndike block properties to discuss future development plans.
 Meeting with IT professional to discuss possible options for access to higher
bandwidth fiber in City.
 Review of business plan and follow up with business interested in possible
microloan for their new business venture in the City.

OFFICE OF THE SOLID WASTE DIRECTOR
 Performed quarterly gas sampling.
 Continued painting and cleaning control room in the transfer station.
 Sent out slope level indicators to be repaired.
 Worked on repairing the alternator connection on the D5M.
 Scheduled meeting with St. Germain & Associates to review the facility operations master plan that they have been working on.
 Turned windrows and reorganized the compost area in preparation of fall leaf
pickup.
 Built up the South East corner landfill grade in preparation of the new gas
collection piping installation.
 Sampled and sent out for testing waste water samples.
 Performed stormwater monthly inspection reports.

OFFICE OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY DIRECTOR
 Replaced a pump check valve at Park Street Pump Station. The second check
valve will also be replaced in the near future.
 Replaced two emergency lights, found two were faulty during our routine monthly safety checks.
 Repaired the Gravity Belt Thickener belt alignment sensor.
 Cleaned and inspected the abandoned sewer main from 29 Mechanic Street to
the pump station entrance, located and confirmed the lateral connection from
29 Mechanic Street.
 Inspected a new sewer lateral and connection at 51 Willow Street.
 Worked with Wright-Pierce to smoke test and trace the drain lines in the Winter
Street – Park Drive area.
 The collection system Environmental Technicians attended a collection system
inspection and maintenance training class.
 Met with DEP regarding our draft permit and consent agreement. DEP plans to issue our new permit prior to finalizing the consent agreement.

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