Coordinator Report October 9, 2013

I requested assistance from Jim Toth in determining the town's interest,
if any, in-dead man's curve also known as the Old Athol Rd.  This was in
the context for use by Hurlbert's as a draft horse exercise place as an
alternative to Gale Rd.  I found no Town Meeting action on the matter. 
Assessor's clerk located two deeds subsequent to the new layout that
shows the old right of way. Ted says that "the section of Athol Rd known
as Dead-man's Curve of about 1350 feet was discontinued and abandoned by
action of the County Commissioners in 2003, Docket 1673G and was
registered in the Franklin County Registry of Deeds at book 4443 page
311 (page 1 of 12)." Jim agrees.  This was a county road matter and the
road has been abandoned. Toth further states that "The whole idea of the
town doing anything to accommodate Hurlbert and his horses is not a good
idea and is probably unlawful."

Five residents and the ACO met informally with me this week in an
evening meeting regarding loose animal fees, the field driver position
and its vacancy. Based on their input I drafted a fee schedule that
gives each resident one free get out of jail card a year, defines an
incident as an occurrence involving one or more animals, doesn't involve
the Field Driver unless the ACO, police or other reporter has tried to
locate the owner, and doesn't transport or impound animals except as a
last resort. Annual Town Meeting will need to create a revolving fund to
make the funding mechanism workable.  The meeting developed a good lead
on a prospective field driver candidate.  The draft proposal is in the
board's meeting packet. Rosa thinks the "mulligan" ought to be counted
by fiscal year. I think that confuses the public so I stand by the
calendar year recommendation.

Chief Shoemaker will be in to make a report and to request an
appointment of a police sergeant.

I have emailed E. Horn to reschedule his follow-up visit which he had to
postpone at the prior meeting.

Wednesday October 16 is the labor bid deadline for the highway equipment
garage project. Tim is concerned that it is too late in the season to
begin the project construction and that he can't risk leaving the
equipment outside. Let's have a discussion and make a decision based
upon the labor bid results, total project cost and Tim's concerns about
equipment being stored outside and in unconditioned space which poses
starting concerns. Thanks are due the BEC and Janice their chair, Andrea
at the FRCOG and to BEC committee member Jack C for the project
construction drawings.

Our local veteran's service officer, Jim Erviti gave the VSO job his
best and has now resigned as VSO, though he indicates he is willing to
hang on thru November to aid in the transition. He is recommending the
Town rejoin the District. We have two active cases, and one is new.  I
think that the fact he wasn't paid, wasn't accepted in the network of
VSOs, is in a position with consequences to others in need and the
complexity of navigating the system all have taken their toll.   Now
Warwick is faced with finding and getting training of a new VSO or the
Town returning to the district. I have reached out to Mark Fitzpatrick
at the local district and see what it will cost us to rejoin them. It
used to be about $1,700 / year plus retirement benefits.

The MBI123 project fiber to Mt Grace H tower was almost installed last
week. Almost is the operant term. A resident called DCR to report a
machine on the mountain; DCR determined the MBI contractor didn't have a
needed permit to dig and stopped the work. MBI considers this a
righteous stoppage. We can only hope this permit comes more quickly than
the Town's most recent DCR permit which took 18 months.