The Rockland Report February 20, 2015

OFFICE OF THE ACTING CITY MANAGER/FINANCE DIRECTOR
 Approved Payroll Warrant
 Approved Accounts Payable Warrant
 Working on FY16 Budget – Met with a few departments to discuss budget and
entered received budgets into Munis
 Working with Legal Dept. on Sand/ Salt Shed Land issue
 Revisiting the Transfer Station Master Plan
 Met with Aldersgate Church Representative on proposed Botanical Garden
located on Church Property
 Advertised for interim financing - Old County Road Project
 Winter Street Project went out to Bid – Construction Start Date in April
 Spoke with Citizens on the following issues
o Sidewalk snow removal
o Plowing of side streets
o City wide snow removal – what is the City’s plan
o Old County Road construction – when is it going to start and will it include
sewer

OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL FISH PIER DIRECTOR
 No permits were issued this week.
 Met with EDA and MDOT on providing funding for fish pier re-surfacing, pile work, two hoists, and dredging around pier.
 Shoveled snow off ramp and public floats.
 Removed snow from around fire hydrant.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 Last week’s Open House/Love your Library; your Library loves you event was a great success, with a little over 300 attending, enjoying food, music, company, learning about the Library and experiencing the joy of community. My deepest thanks to all who helped make this such a great time, and to those who joined us for the evening.
 Catinka Knoth’s Children’s Art Class drew Mardi Gras masks and other related motifs. No Adult Art class was held this week, either, due to the holiday.
 The Memoir Writing Workshop was held on Tuesday. This group meets weekly, and is open to anyone who wants to write, or just listen.
 Several planned programs were cancelled this week due to weather, and/or staff illness.
 Jean Young held the second of five workshops in a series of Family Place Library™ programs.
 Gary from Eastern Fire performed a check of the fire protection system.
 I attended a meeting of the Friends’ Board.
 The weekly Rockland Rhythm Masters Drumming Troupe met on Thursday
afternoon.
 Continued a survey of patrons and community members with regard to Adult
programming at the Library.
 Jessie Blanchard held a Cornerstones of Science Trunk program, Exploration of the Human Body—Blood & Bones! Participants had the chance to dig into a Science Trunk from the Cornerstones of Science program, with hands-on activities and games revolving around a different theme each month. Aimed at children ages 7-12 to learn the science that explains the basic functions of the amazing human body. Activities included Blood Cells, The Human Heart, The Lungs, Bones and the Human Skeleton and A Conversation about Our Health. Jessie held this on Wednesday afternoon, and repeated it on Saturday morning.
 The scheduling of appointments for, and hosting of, the AARP Tax Aide Volunteer Income Tax preparation is well underway. There are still some openings in March and April, but they are filling up fast.
 The Thursday Evening Arts & Cultural Event was Holy Russia and the Icon. Ben Cooke shared his expertise on religious icons-- how they are made, and their
connection to Russia. Ben was born and raised in Birmingham, England. He
received an Undergraduate Master in Divinity degree from the University of
Edinburgh in 2009.
 The Maine State Library is publicizing the tax check off to support Maine Libraries; any Maine income tax filer can donate to the Maine Public Library Fund tax check-off by specifying a contribution amount on Maine income tax form schedule C-P. For more information about the program, visit
www.maine.gov/msl/tax Last year’s income from this went to enhancing the
Maine InfoNet Download Library.
 Children’s Librarian Jean Young hosted Milkweed Puppet Theater: Brer Rabbit, Part of The Arts for Kids and their Families series. These old African tales give courage to those who feel small, by laughing when a spunky little rabbit uses his wits to outsmart his rival, Brer Fox.
 Upcoming: Friends’ Winter Clearance Book Sale, with Bake Sale, and Book Talk Kickoff Party: Have you read a really good book and are just dying to talk about it? Well we’d love to listen! We’re launching a brand new section to the library website where you can post your own recorded book talks. Others will be able to listen to your recommendations and find new books for themselves! To celebrate, we are having a kickoff party for teens. Teens who attend the party will have a chance to record their own book talks, up to two minutes in length. For every two book talks recorded a $5 gift card to Amazon.com is earned, while supplies last. There will also be free pizza, games, and a movie, so come join us in the community room! Ages 12-18 invited.

OFFICE OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY DIRECTOR
 The treatment plant is running good and there were no CSO events during the
past week.
 Plowing and Snow Removal continues on a daily basis at the treatment plant and pump stations.
 Worked on the DEP pretreatment report that is due March 1st.
 Submitted a non-conformance incident report to DEP. The non-conformance
incident was due to a faulty effluent flow meter. The meters and transducers are
over ten years old and need to be replaced immediately. The effluent flow can
still be measured using metered influent flow but our current permit requires
continuous effluent flow measurement.
 Working with Sullivan Associates on trouble shooting the faulty effluent flow meters and the corrective action of ordering and scheduling the installation of new meters, transducers and electronic controls.
 Normal preventative maintenance of equipment at the treatment plant.
 Processed and shipped five trailers of sludge this week.
 Pumped and cleaned the primary and secondary scum pits.
 Received a report from Knowles Industrial Services regarding the leaks in the
headworks building. It appears that the influent channel is failing, creating what
appears at this time to be a small leak on the outside wall behind the brick
veneer. The recommended approach at this time is to remove some brick and
seal the wall from the outside using a urethane grout injection. The inside of the
channel will need to be repaired and this can be done as part of a larger
upcoming project to replace the headworks equipment.
 Maine Water repaired a broken water main on Glenwood Avenue in front of our pump station.
 The lab did BOD testing for Vinalhaven and TSS and BOD testing for Northhaven.
 Gathered samples from the pump stations for conductivity testing.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
 Trash pickup for one day this week for city buildings and receptacles.
 Saturday call-in to scrape and sand city streets.
 Sunday plowing and sanding streets, priority sidewalks, and parking lots for 3” snowfall. Extremely cold and windy.
 Monday (holiday) two trucks called in to plow snow drifting areas due to the high winds.
 Thursday plowing and sanding streets, sidewalks, and parking lots for a 7”
snowfall. Most of this snowfall came down within a four hour period.
 Snow removal crew came in early Friday morning to scoop snow on the
downtown streets.
 Both sidewalk plows/snow blowers worked on sidewalks all week. Also, using
loaders to remove snow where sidewalk machines unable to.
 Hauling snow from parking lots/sidewalks/intersections/roadsides on Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Friday with Public Works trucks and equipment.
 Pushing snow up at Transfer Station snow dump with dozer and loader.
 Benching snow banks on roadways for three days.
 Transfer Station truck taken to O’Connor’s in Augusta on Monday for a drive shaft seal and coolant leak repair work. Contractor, Gordon Libby, hauling trash until repairs are completed.
 Frozen water line at Transfer Station that serves all the buildings except chemical building discovered on Thursday. Shut off valve at chemical building and we are currently coordinating a steamer to unthaw pipe.

OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 License inspections were done along with the fire dept. at the Dairy Queen, Capt. Lindsey House, Ripples Inn and the new restaurant at 421 Main Street called La Comida set to open in April.
 There was one complaint filed this week.
 The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:
o 3 Plumbing permits

OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
 Last Wednesday we had a large group of people watching young kids play for
the Mid-Coast Pee Wee Championship. This Wednesday we had a different group of adults working for a different championship. DODGEBALL is BACK. We had 12 teams playing in an open challenge bracket to start the 2015 Season.
 More snow but thank goodness they were wrong about it being wet and heavy.
The walk ways are beginning to look like a maze but they are clear of snow thanks to the temperature finally getting above freezing Thursday.
 This is Vacation week for the local schools and that means the kids are here
playing basketball, tag, Frisbee and just hanging out. The game room has been
open each afternoon and the After School Program has been running all week
from 8 AM to 6 PM.
 The Saturday Art Studio program has started a new project for the Island Institute and they have also applied for a grant in conjunction with the Farnsworth Art Museum.

OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR
 Processed Real Estate Transfers, updating parcel cards, sales book,
property splits.
 Processed Personal Property accounts, updating ownership, owned items,
depreciation, State BETR’S 801 returns, BETE exemptions.
 Processed building permits, reviewing, updating property cards and
assessments.
 Analyzing qualified sales of all properties and neighborhoods for a fair and
equitable assessment.
 Completing State forms and returning for processing.
 Listening and reviewing properties at the property owner’s request.
 Updating Tax Maps and posting to the web site

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE
Officers responded to 163 calls for service. Rockland Police Officers responded to 12 motor vehicle crashes and one animal complaint. Twenty (20) traffic stops and traffic violations were conducted. Officers charged or made 10 arrests of individuals for various offenses, to include Warrant of Arrest, Protection from Abuse violations, Domestic Assault, Trespassing, Bail violations Traffic offenses, and a Drug offense.
 The department continues to engage in community outreach concerning safety
tips for pedestrians via our social media face book page.
 Officers once again assisted MDEA in drug interdiction investigations within the surrounding area.
 Sgt. Finnegan met with other members of Maine’s Impaired Driving Taskforce in Augusta to discuss issues concerning alcohol and drug impairment enforcement issues affecting our Communities.
 Officer met with New Hope for Women and acquired materials to assist officers in evaluating domestic violence perpetrators for likelihood of recidivism toward victims.

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:
 Thankfully due to our preparation efforts we were able to head off Sat/Sun’s big snow storm.
 Sunday mornings’ shift change brought a chimney fire that turned out to be an
issue with a pellet stove, fortunately there was no damage and the fire was
contained to the actual chimney pipe, as the weather conditions were extremely
cold and windy.
 Also on Sunday we assisted PD with a traffic hazard on Camden Street when a
stay/guide wire holding the traffic lights broke and was hanging in the travel lane.
 President’s Day was busy with C-Shift doing 12 calls. Crews again assisted PD with another traffic light issue on Camden Street, shoveled hydrants, responded to propane leak inside a building and a water pipe break inside an apartment.
 A pedestrian was struck on Maverick Street Monday evening which hopefully will serve as a reminder that when there are no sidewalks present, pedestrians should walk “into traffic” while bicyclists should “ride with the flow of traffic”.
 Wednesday around noon we responded to a fully engulfed vehicle fire on Main Street that was in danger of involving the building at 734 Main. PD had the area sealed off and clear of traffic so that the B-Shift crew could address the fire quickly and safely.
 CEO Root and I met with an architect regarding a change of use in the Thorndike Building.
 Dave Kalloch and I conducted four inspections for restaurant or lodging licenses on Thursday.
 Thursday night C-Shift shoveled hydrants until almost 1 a.m. A/C Elwell was utilizing a borrowed back hoe from DPW to clear snow away from the hydrants as the banks were beginning to get too high for regular shovels to throw the snow. The rest of the shift decided if he was out, they’d go out, thus the late night.
 PW assisted us by again removing snow from our parking lot, as it had shrunk to nearly half its normal capacity. They also opened up a parking area on the
vacant lot at Lisle and Park Street which will make future snow removal much
easier.
 As I prepare this summary the crew from A-Shift is preparing to tackle the rest of the hydrants.

OFFICE OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
 With the Fish Pier Director, met representatives from the Economic Development Administration and Maine Department of Transportation to discuss funding partnership to complete $1,000,000 of essential renovations and improvements to the pier. Have begun initial preparation of Economic Development Administration Grant application.
 Meetings with four companies to provide assistance and advice on the Knox
County Microloan program, CDBG Economic Development program and business planning.
 Meeting with representative from the Farnsworth Art Museum to reconvene work on the Arts & Cultural Plan.
 Development of a proposal for a housing strategy and needs assessment and
background research on housing data.
 Development of guiding principles, framework and planning process to advise the Comprehensive Planning Commission on the proposed update of the
Comprehensive Plan.
 Attended Rockland Main Street Economic Restructuring Committee meeting.
 Preparation of financial information and grant narrative for 2014 CDBG Downtown
Revitalization Grant.
 Organized and held meeting with regional economic development professionals to discuss regional broadband planning project.

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