Coordinator Report Jan. 7, 2009 Minutes of two executive session meetings from 2006 and 2007 are included in your meeting package. These are privileged until the board votes to release them. Each had to do with pending or contemplated litigation. There is no reason not to release them now. It will not defeat the purpose to disclose at this time. For future reference, note that roll-call votes are required in votes taken in executive session. Since I have been working for you we have avoiding having any executive sessions. Following is on the subject of public records and record requests. Patricia reports that Town Clerk has been either unwilling or unable to find an 18th-century map that should be in the safe and that she is required by state law to provide documents requested by citizens within 10 days. Jeannette reports that she can not readily find that piece of information, is not sure what it looks like or what form it is in. She is the custodian of the records, but is not familiar with every piece of information kept in the safe. Patricia should make a formal written request if interested in starting the ten day time clock. In response, Jeannette can provide her with an estimate of the charge, per hour, to look for this map and it could take quite a while. Jeannette is willing to continue to search for this 18th century map as she has time available after her other duties. Jeannette reports that nothing has left the vault in her tenure which began in 1998. The map has definitely not been lost if it was there when the inventory was done. The difficulty lies in her not knowing what to look for among many volumes and papers in a small crowded space filled with documents. She stated that she is not aware of everything that is listed in that inventory, and things have been moved around by a number of clerks since the inventory was done. Having the state archivist come to help inventory the vault is not high on her priority list. While public records request are not required to state the reason for the request, this matter does raise the question of in what capacity Patricia is requesting this document, as an individual or on behalf of the Selectboard? Highway Department: Tim reports that all the new speed limit signs are up. A copy of the MDOT approved speed limits has been provided to the Orange District Court. Your package includes a copy of the FRCOG equipment sharing survey. We already have a signed county-wide mutual aid agreement executed. It was under this agreement that we were able to accept the loan of the Town of Gill's highway truck last winter. Tim would like a sense of the Selectboard with respect to moving to implement more equipment sharing with other towns. In many cases, a spare plow for instance, we'd just loan it. In the case of a piece of heavy equipment we'd supply it with operator. The recipient town would pay us cash or we'd trade for some other service. We will not be bidding street sweeping this year. The dollar amount of our "buy" doesn't require it, and our new truck-mounted sweeper may be able to accomplish more that the old equipment did in the past. We'll negotiate for sweeping directly with vendors as needed this year. Year to date Snow and Ice expenditures are less than half what we'd spent by this date last year. The six inches of snow that took three days to accumulate last weekend and included New Year's Day required a total of 18 hours of overtime. Tim's snow and ice report is in your package. Materials continue to be the highest cost expenditure for snow removal. Tim feels the new truck's ability to sand and plow simultaneously is helping them do a better job. IRS changed mileage reimbursement rate to 50 cents / mile beginning January 1. Patricia wrote me to ask why if the Orange and state police logs can report on Warwick events why Warwick can't do the same. I have asked and Brian has agreed to request that Shelburne dispatch send us monthly or quarterly incident reports. Brian reports that he will complete the Police Department annual report on the weekend and submit it next week. Board of Health chair weighed in on the proposed town beach noting that there is a requirement for monthly water testing and that the board would be responsible for closing the beach when necessary. Burning permits will soon be available on-line. Gunnar will provide the details via the February newsletter. After 16 years serving the town as Moderator, Alan Mexcur has decided not to seek re-election. This next Town Meeting in May will be his final appearance. He will be available to assist the next Moderator. I had discussions with our DOR representative regarding the two enterprise fund budgets as part of the tax rate setting process. I think the state has all it needs to set our tax rate. Thanks are due the Town Clerk, Assessors, and Town Accountant. I will be signing the VT Yankee grant to the Fireman's Association. This is a $7500 award that comes through MEMA to the Town. The Association puts the funds in the Fire Station building fund. There is a sign-up sheet on my door to have the Jr. Firefighters replace your smoke detector battery and / or provide a weather alert radio. Both are at no charge. I fielded an inquiry regarding housing rehab loans which I referred to the Housing Authority. Residents should be aware that FCAC, the community action agency that administers fuel assistance is also a source for financial assistance for weatherization. And residents who are over the income guidelines ought to explore the low cost financing offered by National Grid for conservation and weatherization. Our broadband enterprise fund, Warwick Broadband Service (WBS) needs to decide on its method to provide maintenance and customer support. My short term proposal is that I in my capacity of Town Coordinator continue to provide management and customer support for the next few months to keep costs low and gauge the scope of the problem, at which point we revisit the matter. I think we will find that our competition meets its need with its employees and not on a contract basis. In the past two weeks I consulted with WiValley, Access Plus and our two installers. We implemented some changes that have returned the system to stability. I went out and re-aimed five systems, taking two off of the cell tower and on to Mt Grace. Another solution involved a minor change to the radio frequencies we use. This was recommended by Access Plus. During the past two weeks I have spent 1/3 of my time on broadband. This is twice as much time as usual and means 10 hours per week, of which slightly less than half the time was at customer installation sites relocating radios and testing at the user end. My work on this included billing customers, processing payments, bookkeeping, taking orders, learning to and programming hardware, conferring with employees and colleagues, trouble-shooting, studying product documentation and on-line forums, moving ahead with the structural analysis for adding other bandwidth to the system, five follow-up site visits and several "fixes" conducted from the office via phone. There is consulting money in the budget if needed. I am willing for the next few months to take on this added responsibility of providing support as part of my job. It will give us a chance to qualify and quantify our system's needs. I support the Broadband Committee recommendation to compensate installers under my direction at the rate of $50 for two hours per open ticket, including feedback and reporting back. Some of the fixes I did involved moving an installation as little as four inches to as much as four feet. I am learning that leaves on and leaves off the trees doesn't necessarily make radio reception better or worse, just different. I think we are going to see need to adjust some installations each spring and fall. Four individuals have expressed varying interest in being trained as installers. One begins the training this weekend. We have five installations pending and we will near 70 connections by the end of January. I granted an exception to a house sitter to provide WBS service for the winter only, negating the one year commitment. The customer will pay the $500 up front and when the Warwick resident returns will offer their system for sale used in the spring at a discount. I assured them that my opinion is that they could get half their money back. It is an expensive solution which they are willing to assume as the person is a college student and needs real connectivity. Town of Athol is taking over administration of the Business Loan Fund. From here on borrowers will make payment to the Town and loan origination will occur through the Town Office of Planning and Development. Three business loans have been made to date. We got copies of the Tishler conservation restriction from Mt. Grace Land Trust. I submitted them to the Town Clerk to file. She may determine they should go to the Assessors. The originals are filed at the Registry of Deeds. I have been working with Jack Cadwell of Building and Energy Committee on procuring new storm windows for the office end of the town hall. I solicited quotes from firms in North Quabbin, Brattleboro, Keene and Greenfield. Athol Window and Siding was the only respondent. The price is somewhat less than we estimated, we have the funds available and appropriated. I recommend I be authorized to proceed. This is the next priority after insulation and air sealing. Following this we will deal with the unused chimney capping and masonry re-pointing.