Coordinator Report
January 14, 2016

Resident Miryam Williamson is willing to be appointed the town's
representative to the Municipal Coalition Against the Pipeline (MCAP).
This is the group we joined after Northfield Selectboard member Jed
Proujansky met with the board about. No others have indicated a
willingness to be appointed. 

Related to the pipeline proposal is the matter of putting up signs
prohibiting overweight and over-wide trucks without a local permit, and
posting weight limits on our main roads and bridges. Just as in the case
of speed limit signs we cannot just put up signs at our discretion,
signs must have a legal basis. Our bridges are good to 80,000 pounds
which is the legal maximum. Does it make sense to post what a trucker
should know absent a sign?  And, should we provide signage so that
truckers know that their state overweight or over-wide permit does not
apply because Route 78 is not a state highway? 

We are nearing completion of our Green Communities grant funded work at
the Police Station, Town Hall, Library, and two Highway buildings. Some
tweaking at the Library including a blower door test, Wincerts, and
Wi-Fi thermostats at Town Hall are yet to be done.  There is about $50k
remaining of the grant funds and we will look to the Building and Energy
Committee for suggestions of next steps.

The Pioneer School District contacted me regarding WCS (Community
School) capital items for the future. I've suggested we refer to these
as facility improvement expenses and take capital out of our lexicon
until we, if ever, agree on a definition of capital. I was questioned
about more insulation work paid for by the town for our school and
reminded the District administration that we have a borrowing
authorization in the amount of $200k voted to insulate and air seal WCS.
That vote is still valid. The spending however is conditional upon the
District, or the three other member Towns, authorizing a performance
contract under which Warwick can recover the cost of the energy
betterments from the dollar cost savings derived from the project.
Warwick spent >$60k on the gym to insulate because the construction
there was of a type where it was do it now or never (without ripping off
the new roof). Until a performance contract is agreed upon we won't
likely be spending our money on insulating and air sealing WCS. The
initial cost is another $60k. That is because we only realize 10% of the
cost savings and that would take 100 years instead of about ten years to
realize a payback on the input. We would entertain a contract wherein
not all the savings accrued to amortization. This would extend the terms
of the pay back and offer some relief to the other member towns in the
short, as well as the long run.
Steve Kurkoski of our Building and Energy Committee has met with the BEC
and some Fin Coms of the member towns on the matter and has some buy-in.
Northfield Selectboard and Finance Committee excepted if there is any
interest at the District to move this forward it should go to District
Buildings and Grounds Subcommittee. FY18 proposed projects include
replacing the ventilation system. That should not happen until
insulation and air sealing is fixed.


Warwick Broadband - MBI granted the town a $5k planning grant to support
the LTE (Long Term Evolution) trial. The contract has been signed and I
submitted a report to MBI on our progress to date. It is four or five
pages and is included in the board meeting package for your information.

Broadband Committee chair Tom Wyatt wrote a letter to MBI in answer to
their seeking comments on a draft Request for Proposals for fiber
engineering. This and the response from WiredWest's Jim Drawes are
included in the meeting package.
	
I have begun meeting with Highway Superintendent Larry Delaney weekly
and he sends me a short email and the end of each day describing what
they have been doing and what is on tap for the following day. Some
Highway Grant funded work is continuing and we are spending the town
funds faster than a straight line draw down would suggest, but I think
we can recover in the spring construction season. Larry has expressed
concern about the worker's using comp time instead of taking over-time
pay hurting his town funded budget. I've told the accountant to accrue
the overtime expense each warrant cycle into an account. If overtime
would have been paid from snow and ice, then when it is paid by the
employee drawing down the comp time, that portion that would have been
paid by snow and ice, if paid instead of deferred, should still come
from snow and ice. This needs to happen contemporaneously so we have an
accurate snow and ice number when we get to annual Town Meeting. I'd
like a vote of the board supporting creation of this comp time account.

This item about the Solid Waste District is mostly informational.  I am
in a dispute with the District over the two shipping containers owned by
the district used for recyclables. They don't feel we use them / turn
them enough and want to take one away and provide it to another town. I
say we should not suffer a penalty because we compact our paper. Having
two containers for this lightweight material means I can tandem ship
(two containers at a time) most of the time. We bought a compactor and
rent a container for paper. Had we not done so there would be no dispute
but since we rent our own paper vessel they want to take theirs away
since they are in short supply. I say no, that isn't fair, and we should
not be penalized for our efficiencies. We use what another site would
use for paper as a second container for bottles and cans.  I request the
board authorize the option of terminating the hauling contract. I'd work
this out but welcome the option.

Bruce and Nancy Kilhart, Bill Lyman and I attended the first
stakeholders meeting of Orange Ambulance with FRCOG planning assistance.
I see an effort to provide more daylight on the basis and method for the
subsidy provided by Erving, New Salem, Wendell, and Warwick. I also find
the facts mushy and most other towns anxious to know how much the FY17
Ambulance "Assessment" will be. I'd like the board to approve submission
of this process as a Community Compact (CC) Project which will bring
some technical assistance funding to the table. The other CC project is
our ClearGov.com Financial Transparency project 
I understand folks wanting budget numbers but by my lights, to justify a
change, there has to be a basis. Some limited financial information was
provided at the meeting.  If I accept the 61% allocation of OFD budget
to ambulance ( I don't, and it is a place to start) Orange lost an
average of $170k a year in each of the past two years on ambulance
operations on which it had fee income of approximately $450k annually.
This is before accounting for the subsidy provided by the surrounding
towns, a representation that was incomplete. I documented that Warwick
paid $8k even though Orange did not recognize the payment, and provided
a copy of the invoice which was in fact issued.
Per the handouts, about 85% of ambulance service was either to Orange or
for the transport business leaving 15% of the service's business
providing for 1/2 of Erving's landmass, plus all of Wendell, Warwick, and
New Salem. 

We need to see if and how many transports might be included in the
surrounding town / not Orange column. Transports may perhaps not be a
cause of losses and may justifiably be excluded in an analysis.

And we need to account for transports within Orange if they don't
deserve to be in the mix because they fully pay their cost or make a
profit that should accrue to Orange. No profit sharing.

The data so far presented says to me that the four outlying towns need
to cover 15% of the $170k loss; that allocation being comprised of the
percentage of what is attributable to (1) other than the transport
business which is shrinking and (2) service not to Orange. 
My back of the envelope calculation says that the current contribution
by Warwick and the other towns covers our share of the loss.

Employer costs including (1) Fire and Police accident insurance
(McNamara), (2) unemployment, and (3) health benefits need to be
included and accurately allocated. Payments to the retirement system
that are in addition to payroll deductions are based on unfunded
liabilities of the past and are not "our" problem.

Based on the information provided at the meeting no increase is
justified. I look forward to fresh numbers that include the employer
costs and to a justification of the allocation percentage too. Something
must be on file to justify the Medicaid claim on which this is
allocation that 61% or Orange's FD budget is based.