Coordinator report 12 November 2009

Paul Daniello representing Mt. Grace Land trust will appear at the next
Selectboard meeting regarding a proposed Conservation Restriction on
about 15 acres of back land (no frontage). He has met with the
Conservation commission who support the request. Most of the land
involved is in Royalston. Selectboard need to vote that this is in the
public interest in order for this to happen.

We have a request from FRCOG that we appoint an emergency response
coordinator. I referred this to Mr. Erviti, our Emergency Management
Coordinator. Since this ERC position has most often to do with hazardous
material spills he recommends appointment of Fire Chief. I concur and
our chief has been functioning in this capacity.

Proposal for fire department stipends:  We appropriated $6k. The Chief
wants the officers to be included in the stipends as their contribution
to the department in training, building, and apparatus repair is far
beyond what they are "paid".

To qualify for stipends, firefighters must: attend 50% of training
sessions (this training requirement may be met by attending outside
training from another department and / or fire Academy training /
certification.  Firefighters must also respond to alarms / calls and be
first responders on medical calls.

Stipends will be paid twice each fiscal year. once in November and final
distribution in June.  5/12ths of $6,000 is $2556.  There are twelve
qualified for stipends by the chief. This works out to $500 / year and
$213 each for the first payment.

FYI, there is $2,000 on the stipend line for officer compensation
divided between the chief, deputy chief, the three lieutenants.

Proposed speed limits are ready for the board's approval and submittal
to the Registry of Motor Vehicles. It has taken us almost three years to
get to this point and in my view they keep getting better. The most
recent changes involve some yellow advisory signs and a few further
speed reductions. The Moore's Pond area is getting a 25 MPH and we were
able to keep our desired 30MPH in the village center. I urge the
approval by the Selectboard. This has the support of the Chief of Police
and Highway Superintendent.

We are on track to meet our Dec 1 deadline for the CDBG project list and
strategy. A hearing is Thursday Nov. 12 and we need to have this voted
before Dec. 1

I did some research for Health Board and learned that a majority of our
school district towns have a dumpster and private hauler. The elementary
school is now buying stickers. I have arranged for a steel enclosure to
be built over the compactor to better secure it and to help avoid
freeze-up. And we are adding an immersion heater to the hydraulic tank.
Only other enhancement I recommend at the transfer station is a
compactor for the paper / cardboard as we are shipping about a ton per
load with shipping cost of $180 a load. By quadrupling the tonnage we'd
save $500 in trucking. A good used compactor would cost us about $5k and
the breakeven would be less than two year's time.

Thanks are due Janet Conover for her service on the ZBA and past service
on Cemetery Commission. She recently resigned from the former and her
expertise and energy will be missed. Miryam Williamson has agreed to be
appointed. Ted Cady has agreed to contribute clerical assistance. The
Angel's application is affected by the changes because only three
members participated and there is case law that requires all three
members to see an application through. Fred Dupere, town counsel,
recommends starting anew. That will be the ZBA's call ultimately as
there is a number of options. I'll give what administrative assistance I
can to the ZBA so that this can be fast tracked to the extent possible.

We have begun scoping the WCS sprinkler repair project and developing
proposal selection criteria. I am being assisted by the architectural
firm of Bannister Greenberg with the process.

Among my duties for the town I am the procurement officer.  With
assistance of Andrea of FRCOG I have determined that the project is
subject to MA Law Chapter 149 for construction procurement. It must be
put to competitive bid.  I am assuming the price of the repairs will
fall between $25k and $100k. As such the project must be advertised in
the Central Register, DCAM certification is not required, a 5% bid
deposit is required and 50% payment bond required. Law requires no
performance bond and prevailing wage applies. The professional services
of the architect are not subject to procurement.

One approach to this project is to develop engineering and construction
documents that specify exactly what we want constructed. We have a
complex problem with multiple possible solutions so I think it best we
not propose the fix.  Therefore we will solicit a design / build Request
for Proposals. In this approach, that all bidders are providing the same
service is not a concern. We can consider a variety of solutions this
way.

This will require us to Scope the project and develop Selection
Criteria.  Respondents will propose a solution to our problem (Proposal)
and separate Price proposals.  We will score the proposals base upon our
selection criteria. Only after selecting a Proposal will we open the
price proposal. We may negotiate price once having selected a proposal.

The next step which I am working on is developing the project scope and
selection criteria. There is a perception that the Vitrolic system
installed is inherently junk and not that it was improperly installed
and maintained. Keeping any of it will be a compromise in the view of
some.  Replacing the entire dry system would be a huge expense.
Repairing it will cost in the range of $50 to $70k.

Finally in order to secure funding I intend to take this procurement
forward absent the funds in hand. We are operating under an order to
repair so bidders can be confident that this project will indeed happen.