The Rockland Report August 21, 2015

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 Catinka Knoth’s Children’s class drew Maine farming scenes; the theme for the Adult class was Sailboats by the Rockland Breakwater.
 I attended a meeting of the Library Advisory Committee; the revision to the
Library’s Internet Acceptable Use & Safety Policy was discussed and voted on, in order that the Library be in compliance with the requirements for free Internet
Services provided by MSLN, which are paid for using a combination of funding
from the Federal E-Rate program and the Maine Telecommunications Education
Access Fund (MTEAF). The Committee members also helped with the creation of an action plan to approach other towns, to see if they will pay for their citizens to have cards at this Library.
 Friends of Rockland Public Library held their Annual Meeting. In addition to
reports, and other business, three members whose term will end in December
were recognized. Rebecca Albright, Jeanie Schaden, and Marilyn Trask have
been amazing, and their presence will be sorely missed. I suspect they will still be volunteering, though, which is an excellent thing, indeed. New members were
elected, to begin in January, and I know they will be terrific additions. I look
forward to working with Suzanne Carey, Lisa Ignaszak, and Marjorie Strauss, along with the remaining Board members.
 The Summer Breakfast and Lunch programs concluded this week.
 Keith hosted the Monday evening Drop-in Tech Help.
 Bob, from Sargent Lock repaired the lock to the Staff Break Room; although there is another entrance, no one could get in the usual way, but worse from a safety viewpoint, could not exit that way either.
 Thank you to Public Services staff Arthur Hutchinson and his prison inmate helper, James Footman, for replacing bulbs in the lower level Women’s Rest Room. When Library staff attempted to change them, we realized there was no “off” switch for the automatic lighting in that space.
 Excepting Patty King, who is on vacation this week, all full-time and the two parttime staff members for which this is applicable, completed the VDT safety training.
 During Wednesday Storytime, Judith Andersen read to a collection of visiting
children as well as “regulars.” Miss Judith read many favorites and ended with
Shells! Shells! Shells! written and illustrated by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. Children’s Librarian Jean Young brought out the collection of beach shells, rocks, sea glass; these were displayed in a tray for the children to explore and choose one favorite to take home.
 I continued to train Keith on the MUNIS system.
 The Rockland Farmers’ Market Storytime returned to Harbor Park; Friends’ Board Member Jeanie Schaden was this week’s storyteller.
 The Thursday Evening Arts and Cultural Event was Nature Talk:
Best Seashore Nature Sites: Midcoast Maine. Authors Des FitzGerald, Tony
Oppersdorff, and Kyrill Schabert will narrate a slideshow covering 32 nature sites from Freeport to Searsport. Their book, Best Seashore Nature Sites: Midcoast Maine, covers public preserves from Freeport to Searsport--with inland sites in Jefferson, Dresden, and Searsmont--that offer a wide range of experiences in a diversity of ecosystems. Following the presentation, books were available for sale, with 40% of proceeds going to the library.
 On Saturday, the Friends held their first annual Bag & Tag Sale, with Friends
members able to shop early (at 7:30). Shoppers were invited to the Community
Room to fill a Trader Joe’s grocery bag full of books for $5. The “tag” was a huge yard sale, held on the Union Street side of the library lawn. The Friends collected a wonderful and diverse selection of gently used goods. Available for sale were small dorm refrigerators, a kitchenette set, furniture including three couches, glassware, house wares, antiques, a huge selection of children’s and adult clothing, toys, and much more!
 Upcoming: an Evening with Maine’s Poet Laureate, Wes McNair; also musical performance by Among Friends.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE
Officers responded to 239 calls for service. Rockland Police Officers responded to 16 motor vehicle crashes and 8 animal complaints. 24 traffic stops and traffic violations were conducted. Officers charged or made arrests of 16 individuals for various offenses, to include Warrants of Arrest, Bail violations, Drug violations, Probation Violations, Criminal Mischief, Assault, Domestic Assault and Operating under the Influence.
 Continuing work on JPMA training updates for members of the department. These are mandatory trainings required annually by the Maine Criminal Justice
Academy.
 Deputy Chief Young completed updating the Rockland Police Department
Mission Statement. The Mission Statement was reviewed by every member of the department for input so that we could craft a Mission Statement that best fit the goals and objectives of the department. It has been framed and will be placed
in our lobby for the citizens to see.
 Members of the police department elected to participate in a program that
provides backpacks and school supplies to under privileged children as they
return to school. Members of the police department agreed to allocate money
from the Rockland P.D. Scholarship Fund to purchase the backpacks and school
supplies. Det. Neal who oversees the Scholarship Committee partnered with Wal- Mart and was able to get a discount on the total amount of the supplies that
were purchased. A total of 20 backpacks and enough school supplies to fill them
all were purchased. These backpacks will be given to children in Rockland as
they return to school. The Rockland P.D. Scholarship Fund was created by the
members of the police department who contribute a weekly amount from their
own paychecks in order to support the program. This program is of no cost to the
city and benefits the youth of our community.
 Det/Sgt. Thompson attended a three day training on how to manage the Criminal Investigations Division.
 Sgt. Finnegan attended Law Enforcement Phlebotomy Technician Training.
 Patrol Supervisors continue to deploy motorcycle, bicycle and foot patrols as
weather and staffing allow.
 Radar details are ongoing at various locations throughout the city.

OFFICE OF THE HARBORMASTER
 On Saturday evening, I got to “chaperone” the Maine Boats and Homes and
Harbors' alcohol service in Buoy Park as part of the City's new park use policy.
Really, it was a bit of over-kill, the whole event was very low key and very well
organized. If that's an example of what we can expect from future events, there
will be no problems.
 We finished off the ME B, H, & H show weekend with a two-day rendezvous of Sabre and Back Cove Yachts all over the harbor. They rented slips at the Public Landing, Landings Marina, Trident Yacht Basin and Journey's End Marina. Quite a showing of their production over the last 30 years. Also had Rockland's official flagship, White Hawk, at the dock for a night.
 We are working with American Cruise Lines for next summer's schedule for the Independence. It should be just about the same as this year, mostly in on Tuesday evenings and out Thursday mornings.
 The harbor is still busy – most of the marine related events are over, but there's still a lot of boat traffic – the yachting season hasn't ended yet. I look for another
couple of weeks of a steady influx of boats, and then it will change to a slower fall pattern. Some boats will be coming here to prepare for their trip south, and some will be preparing to get hauled out for the winter.
 We are looking forward to another night of internet cat videos, but it appears the weather won't cooperate, so it is likely going to be moved to a Sunday in late
September.

OFFICE OF THE FIRE CHIEF
Over the past week, in addition to the general response to 45 Fire and EMS calls,
conducting apparatus checks, daily cleaning, routine repairs and maintenance to
the fleet and of the quarters, the following occurred:
 The Maine Boats Homes and Harbors show went off without any problems from our end. We did see a slight uptick in EMS calls in the Harbor Park area, but this is much more likely attributable to the weather than the event.
 Rescue 3 has returned with a host of sensors and electronic parts replaced by
Ford. This was the most significant work done on this issue since it began and I am optimistic that the problem will not re-occur. Unfortunately their inability to
replicate the issue on command means they cannot be 100% certain, but again
this was the most comprehensive diagnostic and correction plan undertaken,
hence the optimism.
 Tuesday morning our personnel responded to a reported structure fire on upper
Park St. where it was quickly discovered the fire was contained to a clothes dryer, which was rapidly extinguished and removed from the building. Thomaston’s Ladder 2 was dispatched on this response as our Tower 3 was in the middle of its annual service test. Thankfully due to the rapid response Lt. Leo was able to cancel the TFD response before they got underway.
 Tower 3 passed its annual recertification test, as did all our ground ladders.
 Wednesday, the Labor-Management (Fire Chief and Union leadership) group met to discuss minor operational details subsequent to the new contract signing or deemed “for the good” of the organization. These meeting help minimize issues and are a key component of the minimal number of grievances files in the past 10-15 years.
 A-Shift, myself and two other personnel attended the Red Cross Smoke Detector installers training program so that we can fully participate in the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign that conducts home fire safety evaluations and installs 10 year smoke detectors free of charge. We’d hoped to find more outside
participants to partner with on this endeavor, but alas, it’s a large part of our
mission, so we’ll make it happen.
 There were numerous times in the past week that all of our on duty personnel were operating at different emergencies requiring out of town ambulances and off duty and call personnel to man the fire station.
 RFD sent an ambulance to the fatal fire in Lincolnville Saturday night to provide EMS coverage to any firefighters that might be injured while operating at the scene, as both of North East’s units were engaged in the resuscitation efforts of the fire victims. During this same time we also had our other ambulance on a call in Thomaston and had to bring South Thomaston in to cover the City. To add to the confusion there was also a request of an ambulance in Camden that required Sterling Ambulance as we had no units available. Having our Rescue 3 back in service should help alleviate some of this “system stress”.
 Lt. Johnson has been posted to the Maine Forest Services team for a probable
deployment out West beginning this weekend. Rick will take vacation as he
seems to think climbing up and down mountains with a chainsaw is “relaxing”. We are very thankful that he and others are willing to step up to this challenge, as
long grueling days of hiking with shovels and rakes has little appeal to the rest of
us.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES DIRECTOR
 Installed voting booths at Rec Center.
 Picked up trash City-wide.
 Ditching at Pen Bay Acres.
 Cut brush around stop signs and sidewalks.
 Road painting.
 Mowed lawns.
 Mowed roadsides.
 Culvert repair.
 Swept streets.
 Watered flowers.

OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 John is on vacation this week.
 The Code Office received a Site Plan Review Application from Winter Street, LLC to construct a 40,000 sq.ft., five story building at 12 Winter Street. The proposed use of the building will be for Art Management/Gallery. The Planning Board will review this application at a meeting on September 29, 2015.
 There were three complaints filed this week.
 The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:
o 4 Building permits
o 3 Electrical permits
o 4 Plumbing permits
o 2 Sign permits
o 1 Street Excavation permit

OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL FISH PIER DIRECTOR
 The f/v Double Eagle off loaded 100,000 lbs of herring. They usually off load the herring on the Islands.
 A lot of activity is taking place at the same time on the pier with limited space
available for all. This activity causes minor stoppage of work for some users until the area can be freed up for the next user to use. The Public area is used by all as is the parking. First come, first served.
 Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors Inc. removed a couple of floats from the harbor boat show. They placed them in their lot storage area across from the pier office with use of O’hara’s crane.
 Dredging Project is moving along. ECO-Analysts Inc. will be submitting the sample analysis plan request for off shore disposal to the Army Corp within the next couple of days.

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