Coordinator report - January 4, 2013

I request that the board designate Beach Committee and Old Home Day
Committee positions as special municipal employee and vote to grant
Kathy Connelly at Section 20d exemption so she can serve on both
committees and as elected BOH member.

This is on the agenda at Nick's request as after much on-line discussion
regarding community meeting space nobody had stepped up to organize this
gathering place at the proffered Town Hall whether as a youth center,
senior center, community center or place to hang out.  I asked in the
January newsletter that folks who have an interest in making this real,
try and attend the January 7 Selectboard meeting where it will be on the
agenda.  Diana Tandy contacted your office to say she would volunteer to
host and would try and attend the meeting. Otherwise no response has
been received to date. Patricia Lemon requested that I put the matter of
a "community gathering place" on the agenda. I have since learned she is
making inquiries with respect to utilizing the tavern and dance hall at
the former Warwick Inn as such a site. As I have a financial interest (I
currently rent some of this space she is making inquiries about) I will
not participate in this discussion.

Twice we have, via the Pioneer School District, been denied by the
Massachusetts School Building Authority in requests for assistance to
address the failing roof at the elementary school. I recommend that the
Selectboard request that the school administration make another
statement of interest to the MSBA.

Selectboard is required to act on the next year's enterprise fund
budgets presented by their respective boards.  The Transfer Station
Commissioners are recommending to you a balanced budget in the amount of
$42,000. It utilizes an anticipated $7,000 surplus from FY12 which needs
to be certified by DOR.  The Commissioners published in the January
community newsletter the new transfer station fee schedule and
accompanying notes to help folks understand the basis for our pricing.
Our final lease payment for the paper compactor is for December and then
we own the compactor and start to realize the savings. The Transfer
Station Commissioners voted to eliminate the $20 vehicle sticker fee
effective Jan 1, 2013 and even with that change have been able to adopt
a budget for the transfer station in the next, FY14, not requiring
taxpayer subsidy.

The Broadband budget for FY14 is balanced and in the amount of $92,000.
It assumes 150 customers. For perspective, extrapolating from the first
six months of FY13 we are on track for $88,000 in revenues and net
income of $15,000 for the year.

I am requesting a surplus property declaration for a new in box Cosco
computer desk that is at least five years unused and two incomplete
computers. I propose to auction them on eBay.

Larry Carey requests that the Board appoint Kathy Connelly to the Old
Home Day Committee.

Chief Shoemaker requests that the board reappoint Justin Gale to the
Warwick Police Department.

The Town has started doing CORI (criminal record) checks on its
volunteers. To date there have been no troubling reports but it has me
thinking about putting a policy in place regarding volunteer suitability
in advance. I'll try to have a draft ready by meeting time. My thinking
is that we want to avoid individuals convicted of crimes against persons
and morality offenses. We may want to consider recency. Obviously we
don't want somebody with a history of drunk driving providing
transportation to our kids.

I am seeking authorization to sign the network connection agreement with
MBI so we have the option of buying our Internet access for the Town and
Warwick Broadband at the wholesale rates. I have a determination that
such purchases are subject to 30b procurement and I am working on the
documents for getting needed quotes for 123 network transport; transport
to Boston, commodity Internet access, and in addition quotes from other
ISPs to simply sell us connectivity with all the above included in their
pricing.

According to Larry Carey the historical society has a group who are
working to document the history of the people of Warwick who have held
the Boston Post cane. They learned that the Greenfield historical
Society has produced a pin that Town gives to the holders of the cane
because it hasn't been safe to allow the cane to circulate. It was
suggested at the Historical Society meeting that Warwick use pins too.
It was brought up that it was a Selectboard responsibility to handle the
cane assignments and not the Society's. It was decided by the society to
bring this matter to the Selectboard to handle. Beverly Shepardson has
been doing the research on this project and has a sample pin.

The independent audit firm Scanlon Associates has completed the five
days of on-site financial audit work and will have the project completed
later in the month. I need to board to approve their engagement which
comes at a cost of $12,500, lower than the $15,000 I expected and was
quoted. Based on a short exit interview they found we have a well-run
Town government. They will be in their management letter making
recommendations to make us better.

The next meeting of the 250th anniversary committee is January 17th at 7
pm at the town hall.

The online planning calendar for Town events is found at:
https://cid-c0dbb3e127216945.calendar.live.com/calendar/Warwick+Calendar
/index.html

The first of the celebratory events is the annual Arts Council Soup
Supper in conjunction with a Wooden Fender dance featuring the band
"Trailer Park" on January 12th.  On January 26th and every last Saturday
evening of each month Jim McRae hosts an open music event (Nopen Mic /
no amplification) at the town hall beginning at 7 pm.

We have our new tax rate which is set at $17.43 per thousand and is a
function of the new and generally lower property valuations. Most folks
won't see an increase in taxes and neither will the Town see an increase
in its revenue from taxation. The rate is a function of the total
valuation and subject to the levy limit.

The Town's Broadband system added two new customers so far in January
and we have eight orders to fill. We got a permit from DCR to add the
MBI funded WiMax radio layer to the Mt Grace tower and a five year
renewal of the contract between Warwick and DCR.

I had another meeting with the firm that is putting cell service to work
from a system placed on utility poles all over Vermont and connected via
the Internet in areas previously without cell phone coverage. While
their equipment, which is software defined, will work with all
platforms, so far only Sprint has signed up to have their frequencies
used by this technology and allow CoverageCo to monetize its use.
Vanu.com agreed to let us test one of these devices on each tower this
spring to see what kind of coverage we can get.

Town department heads need to write their annual report for inclusion in
the Town Report. This report covers the fiscal year running from July 1
to June 30, 2012.  It is time to submit FY14 department budgets. It is
five months until the Annual Town Meeting.  I'll set up a joint meeting
with the Finance Committee later in January. The next regular meeting of
the Selectboard will be on Tuesday because of MLK Day.