The Rockland Report October 3, 2014

OFFICE OF THE ACTING CITY MANAGER/FINANCE DIRECTOR
 Approved Payroll Warrant.
 Preparing for Year End – audit work.
 Staff met with Gartley & Dorsky and MRLD on Winter Street. Project will be bid over the winter for spring construction.
 Public Works placed picnic tables in Oak Street parking lot as an experiment to see how an island will affect parking
 Snow Marine Park is still closed, further tests still show elevated levels of E-coli. Signs have disappeared but will be reinstalled soon.

OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR
 Processing Real Estate Transfers, updating parcel cards, sales book,
property splits.
 Processing Personal Property accounts, updating ownership, owned items,
depreciation, State BETR’S 801 returns, BETE exemptions.
 Processing building permits, reviewing, updating property cards and
assessments.
 Listening and reviewing properties at the owner’s request.
 Updating Tax Maps and posting to the web site.

OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL FISH PIER DIRECTOR
 The following permits were issued for calendar year 2015 this week.
o 1 annual lot storage
o 1 lobster vessel
 The f/v western sea has offloaded 270,000 pounds of herring.
 The price per pound for new shell lobster is $4.15.
 The Shore and Harbor Planning Grant review committee has recommended a
grant award of $10,000.00 for the Planning New Technology Improvements and
Dredge Survey for the Rockland Fish Pier.

OFFICE OF THE HARBORMASTER
 Finishing our last of the small summer cruise ships at the Public Landing, though there is one last visit on October 16th of the American Glory. Much later in the season than normal.
 Getting prepared for the two larger cruise ship visits next week, on the 7th and the 9th of October.
 With all of this lovely Nor'easterly weather it was bound to happen, but a small sailboat broke free of her mooring and washed ashore near the Dragon Cement dock. We pulled her off the rocks and the owner will get her hauled out at Journey's End Marina.
 Met with our U Maine engineering students to discuss their work on engineering a replacement Public Landing. It should be fun working with them through the winter.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 The Library received notice that our application to the Maine Humanities Council for a Let’s Talk About It facilitated book discussion series was successful. You will be reading more about this program which will take place in the winter or early spring. Kudos to Patty King, who did most of the work on this proposal.
 Catinka Knoth’s Adult Drawing Class worked on the theme of “St. George
Grange” while the Children’s drawing class theme was “September gardens”
 I participated in a panel, The Business of Culture, as part of the Community
Cultural and Arts Leadership Forum, held at the Farnsworth.
 Jean Young ‘s Storytime featured the big red barn that her husband Roger
painted for Farm Day; after Storytime, the children all came up to place an
animal in the scene. They also colored their own big red barns at the craft table.
Jean read, Color Farm by Lois Ehlert, a rendition of The Farmer in the Dell, by John O’Brien, and, of course, Big Red Barn, by Margaret Wise Brown.
 Jean Young held the final Wednesday morning library skills class. Eight-year-old Julia Towers received a certificate of graduation, having completed all four of the classes.
 The Rockland Rhythm Masters have been back for a couple of weeks now, which I believe I neglected to share in prior week’s reports. Feel free to drop in.
 This Thursday evening’s Arts & Cultural Events program was the first of a Camden Conference Community Events four-part discussion series, Russia Resurgent, this first one on Russia’s people.
 A special Pajama Storytime was held on Friday. Participants (ages 3 and up) were invited to come in their PJs and bring a favorite blankie or stuffed animal for bedtime stories, songs, a craft and snack.
 Another huge thank you to Public Works, this week’s special thanks to Loy Linscott and Arthur Hutchinson for replacing the very-falling-apart stockade fence which surrounds the chillers!
 Upcoming events— Fall Songfest with Old Town Road; a live performance by the venerable Rockland Shakespeare Society, Enter Ghost: Shakespeare’s
Preternatural Universe

OFFICE OF THE FIRE CHIEF
In addition 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 A Shift assisted in conducting a fire drill at the Breakwater Marketplace.
 Saturday Paramedic Carrie Adams last day as a City employee. Numerous
members of the emergency services community stopped by to wish her well. We
all wish her well as she’s been a great employee, colleague and friend.
 CEO Root and I conducted a final inspection of the new paint booth at
O’Hara’s/Journey’s End.
 EMS Training on Monday afternoon covered cardiac arrests and other life threatening cardiac related events.
 On Wednesday morning C-Shift went on a walk-through of Lonza’s Thomaston St. Facility.
 CEO Root and I met with members of the Farnsworth to review a potential
location for a spring event for up to 300 ticketed guests.
 C Shift members manning an engine stood by at the Oceanside Homecoming
Bonfire/Pep Rally on Wednesday evening.
 No definitive word on our ambulance that is out of service with Ford issues. The latest “plan” from the service station was to send the unit back with a data
recorder so that when another issue occurred we would “capture” it. This plan
was rejected as we will not be putting the ambulance back in service without
some indication that they feel the unit is safe to use on life-threatening calls. We
have been very fortunate that all of these occurrences happened enroute to calls
and not with a critical patient on board.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
 City wide receptacle and building trash pickup for two days.
 Crew (including flaggers) all week on Old County Road between Rankin Street and Route 17 working on ditching and driveway culvert adjustments on both sides of road.
 Assisted hand digging and planting three small trees at the Ferry Terminal Park.
 Sweeping City streets for four days.
 Cleaning catch basins for half a day. The Vactor rear engine continually shut
down when hot. Ordered and installed new ECU unit and recalibrated at
Hammond Tractor.
 Set out three picnic tables in the center area of the Orient Street City parking lot
and weed whacked.
 Rebuilt and painted Library air conditioning unit stockade protection fence
surround and built a box enclosure to protect interior unit pipes.
 Cleaned up bonfire debris remnants from back side of High School.
 Repaired Sandy Beach parking area where the rubber matting was creating a
tripping hazard.
 Picked up backhoe in Bangor after warranteed wiring harness repair work
completed.
 Attended Winter Street reconstruction planning meeting with engineers/architect.
 Lanes Construction overlaid some of the pavement that they installed last fall on Old County Road outside of the compact zone (Lake View Terrace northerly and Thompson Meadow Road southerly). This was an MDOT project that needed repair work to be completed after pavement delamination occurred.
 The Maine Water Co. is planning to pipe burst Tea Street(dead end) next week or the week after. This is to replace a 2” cast iron main.

OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
 The three trees that were bought for the Ferry Terminal Park were planted by
hand Thursday, as well as the tree by the playground on Limerock Street. The four remaining trees are bigger and will be planted using equipment from Public
Works. They are waiting for Dig Safe and then should be going in the first part of next week.
 The ballet bars were installed in the Tower Room Monday and the mirrors are
being installed Friday. Both will make this a better room for dance classes and
more marketable for other activities.
 A group of volunteers from Boston Financial worked on weeding the Ocean Street playground on Thursday. They removed ten trash bags full of weeds in a few hours that morning. A big “thank you” to them for their help!
 The Ice Cream Social for the Rec Mural is Saturday, October 4th, from 6 – 8 PM.

OFFICE OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
 Attended Council meeting to discuss Maine Arts Commission grant for cultural planning.
 Attended and facilitated Cultural Planning Leadership Forum.
 Revised and edited draft grant application for Maine Arts Commission.
 Met with two local entrepreneurs and start up business to advise and assist.
 Prepared and organized meeting to explore development of high speed fiber in
City and other locations in Midcoast.
 Met with two large existing companies to discuss options for new infrastructure needs.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE
The officers responded to 208 calls for service. Rockland Police Officers responded to 13 motor vehicle crashes and 2 Animal complaints. Thirty-eight (38) traffic stops and traffic violations were conducted. The officers made 18 arrests of individuals for various offenses, to include Bail violations, Warrants of Arrest, Probation violations, Drug offenses and OUI.
 We are in the process of conducting a background investigation on a potential
candidate for employment with this agency.
 Detectives are assisting the Knox County District Attorney’s Office by conducting
follow up investigation into a Domestic Violence Assault that occurred in
Rockland. The offender had been previously arrested for the assault.
 Officers assisted the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency with locating a female they
are investigating for drug crimes and then conducting a bail compliance check
on her. The result of the bail check has been provided to M.D.E.A. to be
incorporated into their ongoing investigation.
 Detectives have completed a fraud investigation working in conjunction with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. The suspect has been identified and charges will be forthcoming.
 Traffic Officer Troy Peasley and Patrolman Scott Redmun participated in the Tip A Cop event by waiting on table at Applebee’s last Monday night and raised $340 for Special Olympics Maine.

OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 John attended the Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting on 9/30/14.
 The Code Office received a Site Plan Review application for the construction of an 1152 sq. ft. garage at 143 Maverick Street. The garage will be used for storage for the Plumbing business on the same property. The Planning Board will review this application at its October 7th meeting.
 There was one complaint filed this week.
 The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:
o 9 Building permits
o 2 Electrical permits
o 2 Plumbing permits
o 1 Sign permit
o 1 Street Excavation permit

OFFICE OF THE SOLID WASTE DIRECTOR
 Conducted monthly storm water inspection.
 Prepared landfill for gas collection pipe installation on 10/6/14.
 Replaced ash barrels with a new painted yellow ash dumpster.
 Transitioned landfill operations to new cell at the southernmost end of the landfill.
 Extended monitoring well piping in new cell.
 Scheduled calibration of inline H2S sensor.
 Replaced the muffler on the D5M.
 Cleaned area by baled recyclable storage area.
 We had a DEP site inspection.
 Loaded and sent out batteries and wire for recycling.
 Loaded and sent out 32 bales of mixed paper to be recycled.
 Organized compost area.

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.

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