The Rockland Report

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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
 Attended the walkability survey on Monday with Members of REDAC and citizen participants.
 Met with Fire, Police, Harbor, Wastewater Treatment, and Public Works departments on Monday to ensure all emergency responders were on the same page and prepared for the storm. Luckily, there were no major issues and the minor issues that developed were quickly responded to and addressed. There was no reportable storm damage to City property as a result of Superstorm Sandy’s visit to Rockland this past week.
 Met with Chris Lockwood, Executive Director for Maine Municipal Association.
 Met with the Recreation Director and Engineer for the Renovation project prior to the regularly scheduled progress meeting. Overall, this project is going very well and Rene Dorr has done a fantastic job both in the fiscal management of the project as well as the quality assurance aspects.
 Met with Rene Dorr and Stuart Sylvester to discuss preparation for the upcoming election. Our goal is to ensure the building is open and barrier free for the upcoming election and city staff are committed to ensuring this happens.
 Met with Larry Pritchett, Chair of the Energy Committee and the Librarian to review the chimney repair work at the Library and the associated contract.
 The contract for Cleaning Services at City Hall, the Public Library and the Police Department has been awarded to Michelle’s Cleaning Service of Owls Head, at the current contract rate of $25,920.00 per year.
 A Request for Proposals has been issued for a Diesel Utility Tractor for the Wastewater Treatment Facility. Bids are due Thursday, November 15, at 2:00 PM.

OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR
 Reviewed permits for next year’s pick up work.
 Reviewed personal property accounts.
 Reviewed the condominiums for the Trade Winds.
 Prepared to print new tax maps for the front counter.

OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
 Soccer season has come to an end with our last games played over the past weekend. This has been a challenging fall with all the rain creating a need for make-up games. The boys and girls 5th & 6th grade teams that play in the Mid Coast soccer league both vied for and won the championship Sunday. This is a great accomplishment for that group of local young people. Great job.
 The large amount of pounding rain this past weekend resulted in one small localized leak. Once the metal roof caps are in place, the building will be more protected from the elements.
 The construction meeting and walk around this week was focused mainly on the building being ready for Election Day. The entrances seem to be ready to go with clear and level access to the building at the front and rear entrance. There will be some cleaning left to do and setting up of the booths on Monday, but we are ready to go for this election on Tuesday.

OFFICE OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT DIRECTOR
 Prepped for hurricane Sandy. Had two operators stay overnight during the worst of the storm.
 Worked on Environmental Tech job description and advertisement.
 Worked on Lindsey Brook sampling plan.
 EII, Inc. installed pager software due to the stand alone pager failing. The software is part of the ongoing upgrade, i.e. we’re just installing a month or two early.
 Due to the age of the Wet Weather Wetwell Pumps and need for a future overhaul, we requested a quote for a backup pump so that we could adequately plan for this repair/upgrade in future budgets. The pump quote received was $80,000.
 Limerock Street Quarry Pump – Pump tripped during the storm Tuesday morning. Reset the parameters in the Variable Frequency Drive and re-started the pump without further incident.

OFFICE OF THE POLICE CHIEF
In addition to responding to 209 calls for services this past week and making 8 arrests; summons were made for various offenses, including warrants, violation of conditions of release, robbery, OUI and trespassing, as well as 14 traffic offenses. Officers handled 12 traffic crashes. Along with other duties and shift assignments, members of the police department were involved in the following highlights this past week:
 Traffic Officer Troy Peasley will be attending the International Law Enforcement Torch Run Conference held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Troy was one of four people selected by Special Olympics Maine to represent the state due to his volunteer work and dedication to the Law Enforcement Torch Run and Special Olympics.
 Officers assisted Maine Drug Enforcement with the arrest of an individual trafficking in drugs.
 Members of the Criminal Investigations division have been engaged in speaking at the Rockland Middle school for the Youthlinks Program. This is one of three speaking engagements that the police department will be doing for the Youthlinks program in the next two weeks.
 Members of the department spent time working with city and county emergency management concerning the status of Hurricane Sandy.

OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
 A Building Permit Application was received for Change of Use and renovations to 449 Main Street. A restaurant is proposed for the street level floor as well as the lower level on Kimball Lane.
 John and David attended the Midcoast Code Enforcement Officers Association meeting on 10/31/12.
 Inspection was done at Winding Way Gallery and B & B at 39 Union Street for Certificate of Occupancy.
 Notice of Violation was sent to the owner of truck trailers that are being stored within the 50 feet buffer at 200 Park Street.
 There was one complaint filed this week.
 Reviewed for, inspected, and issued the following permits:
o Two Building permits
o Four Electrical permits
o Two Plumbing permits
o One Sewer Connection permit
o Two Street Excavation permits

OFFICE OF THE FINANCE DIRECTOR
 Approved Payroll Warrant
 Approved Accounts Payable Warrant
 Audit Work FY2012

OFFICE OF THE GENERAL ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATOR
 Handled 27 calls, walk-ins and emails for housing, follow-ups, motel stay, rescheduling, homeless, miscellaneous/unspecified, SSDI letters from case workers and doctors, security deposit, and one missed appointment.
 Met with three clients and processed their applications.
 $4,446.18 was requested. $1,342.00 was granted.

OFFICE OF THE HARBOR MASTER
This is a hard week to sum up in bullet points as storms like Sandy are so disruptive that they change our patterns and plans. Most of this week was spent with the storm. So, we haven't quite switched over entirely from summer work to winter, but there's still a bit of fall left that will allow us to wrap up our projects and get ready for the change.
 We kept the Snow Marine Park boat launch floats in through the weekend, to aid in the pre-Sandy, last minute boat haul-outs, hoping to encourage as many owners as possible to remove their boats.
 Towed our dinghy floats to Snow Marine Park on Sunday.
 With assistance from Public Works, we hauled the remaining floats out at Snow Marine Park on Monday morning.
 Met with the City's emergency team to discuss storm preparations.
 Met with Knox EMA director Ray Sisk to discuss storm preparations.
 Monitored the progress of Sandy around the harbor throughout Monday night.

City Manager’s Weekly Report
 We survived with a minimum of damage to private property; one sailboat washed ashore and refloated the next day, one Apprentice Shop float washed ashore and refloated, one unidentified dinghy washed ashore under the ferry slip and pulled ashore, and one sailboat that dragged its mooring into the North End Channel.
 Pulled more debris out of the harbor.
 Winterized the water system in the Harbor Park public restrooms, and drained the water at the Middle Pier and Sandy Beach.

OFFICE OF THE FISHERMAN’S PIER DIRECTOR
 200,000 pounds of herring landed this week by F/V Western Sea.
 Lobsters bought by Lobster Buyers this week were $2.95 a pound.
 No permits issued.
 Turned off fresh water to pier and drained all fresh water lines for the winter.
 Salt water pumps for wash down of pier will stay up and running until the cold finally arrives.
 Advertisement for next year’s Lobster buyers and herring carriers has been issued. Mailing of next year’s permits for current users will be mailed out next week.

OFFICE OF THE FIRE CHIEF
In addition to responding to the normal flow of fire and EMS calls, daily shift training, apparatus checks, cleaning, repairs and maintenance to the fleet and cleaning and maintenance of the quarters, the following occurred:
 The Department conducted several training sessions at MacDougal School including Advancing the Initial Attack Line and Venting Flat Roofs. The training opportunities presented by this building are PRICELESS!
 The week of October 22nd Rockland Fire & EMS and Rockland EMA began preparations for the outer edges of TS Sandy and their impact on the City. The storm was well-behaved in terms of the National Weather Service modeling, being spot on in terms of predicted timing, winds and damage. Again, the commercial media hyped the impact somewhat for Maine, but be certain that the official forecasts (which we follow) were nearly exact. Rockland EMA held a meeting with the City Manager, Fire Chief/EMA Director, Police Chief, Public Works Director, Harbormaster, and WWTF Deputy Director on Monday October 29th at 0800 hours to confer regarding TS Sandy. It was decided that we would close the Rockland Breakwater through the midday, evening and likely next midday high tide due to its astronomical nature and the expected storm surge. This was coordinated between police, public works and fire. We had a limited power outage in the Talbot Avenue area as wires were taken down by a toppling tree and a more widespread outage which impacted the downtown area, the central residential district, the South End, and parts southwesterly toward Thomaston, as well as most of Owls Head. This widespread outage lasted only a little more than an hour and a half (ca. 0015 to 0150) as CMP was really on the ball. Kudos are due all the public safety agencies, including the Knox Regional Communications Center, and the Harbormaster, Public Works and the WWTP.
 The Fire Chief sat on the Promotional Board for the position of Assistant Fire Chief with Camden Fire Department.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
 Attended Maine Local Roads workshop training in Belfast for snow and ice control.
 City wide leaf/brush/garden debris cleanup.
 Prepared for storm Sandy and worked on cleanup of limbs/trees and leaves during and afterward. Three trees came down on CMP lines during the storm including South Main Street, South Street and Talbot Avenue which we removed after CMP removed from lines. Set out portable stop signs for traffic signal outages at four intersections in the city. Also, barricaded the Rockland breakwater to close to the public during the storm.
 Removed additional floats for Harbormaster at Snow Marine Park.
 Flushed sewer main on Camden Street by McDonalds because of plug. Will need to investigate further after removing grease, stones, and wipes.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR
 Fairpoint installed a loop for a new phone line at the Library. OTT verified, tested, and installed the line. We are waiting for Hi-Tech to complete the project, which will isolate the new line for the security system only, and allow callers to reach Library staff, without the current difficulties.
 Amy gave Ann Matlack the okay for awarding the Library’s portion of the cleaning bids.
 Rockland’s Poet Laureate read Halloween poems to kids; a Halloween Party was thoroughly enjoyed by a large bunch of costumed kids. If you saw the Library’s Facebook page, you will note that some staff were dressed as well, and were a big hit with patrons of all ages.
 We hosted the film Children of Heaven
 Staff worked on an informational flyer to be distributed to people exiting the polls on Election Day. We are hoping to win back some former- and non-users. , with discussion following as part of the ongoing Thursday Evening Arts & Cultural Events programming.

OFFICE OF THE SOLID WASTE DIRECTOR
 The landfill gas flare is installed and operational.
 The muffler/exhaust stacks on the long haul tractor were replaced. The old mufflers/exhaust stacks were rusted out and leaking exhaust.
 Waste water pumping records were submitted. Waste water sampling was conducted and mailed out for analytical work.
 I have been coordinating the purchase of clay material with Ray DeGrass of Dragon Cement. We will be purchasing the clay material for placement around the inside perimeter of the quarry to continue to proactively manage fire and prepare for our next lift.

CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
 Library
o A memorandum was sent to Cordjia from Energy Chair Pritchett and Library Director Amy Levine which requested estimates and a possible change order to address two items identified on 10/4.
o Curtis Dow responded that Cordjia is developing the requested change requests for our review and scheduling the team for outstanding concerns based upon our request, which should occur within the next two weeks. Curtis is trying to obtain the change order pricing in advance of scheduling the balance of the work to obtain best pricing for the Library.
o City Manager met with Larry Pritchett, Chair of the Energy Committee and the Librarian to review the contract for the chimney repair at the Library.
 Recreation Building
o The front of the building is starting to take shape; you can now see how the new sidewalks and stairs are going to look. This will be a great feature of the building in both functionality and aesthetics. The new handicap accessible sidewalk will allow access to the building from the parking lot and will help many people that come to use our programs.
o The new slab in the game room was poured on Wednesday and it looks great. They were able to match it to the existing floor make it level over the 90 foot run. In this building, to have an alteration work out to fit that well is amazing.
 Wastewater System Improvement Project
o Reviewed and forwarded Change Order #10 and Pay Req. #13 for signatures and processing to make final payments to Harold Warren Construction.
o Received first delivery of new electrical equipment. Received instrumentation shop drawings for review.