Coordinator Report

February 17, 2011

Chief Shoemaker is on the agenda to report to the board. He has a list
of items for the board to declare surplus. He requests that the board
promote a provisional officer to regular officer and would like to name
Keith Swan as a new provisional officer.

Regarding the old school building, Gunnar reports that water line
relocation is complete and that there is no further energy usage.
Firefighter's Association has a contractor set to go for the demolition
job sometime this spring.

Town accountant submitted the free cash and Schedule-A financial reports
on 7 Feb.

I have been working with the Building and Energy committee to develop
specifications and conduct the procurement of the rest of the town hall
storm windows.  In addition I am also working on window sash repair
specifications and procurement.  Have concluded, and the committee
agrees that we are best served if we narrow the scope of this project to
make it a shop job and that we do self-help on removal and
re-installation because many of the most qualified restoration
contractors won't carry insurance that allows them to work on our site
and as well may not be licensed as contractors or home improvement
contractors. Since we will be having the window sash stripped and
re-caulked I have asked the Guild's painter not to paint any more of the
dining hall sash.

Provided Mass Broadband Institute with our customer install and failed
address information which will be useful for verification purposes for
mapping. They also offered to undertake signal propagation modeling. I
supplied them with tower, frequency and power data.  UMASS students are
doing an academic research project. MBI will hold an event on March 19
in Northampton to roll out their last mile plan. Reva will represent
WiredWest and I was asked to speak about Warwick Broadband with an
emphasis upon how we got it going.

Supplied Athol Daily News with VT Yankee letter the board signed and
with the organizer's press release.

Bill Lyman did work at WCS on air sealing which has much improved the
heat loss situation. The school had significant ice dam problem of late
which they took care of. Highway pushed back snow plowed snow
accumulation.

We took delivery on the new to us four wheel drive backhoe.

I am in discussion with PVRS IT person to get an understanding of their
needs and plans. Their budget proposal lined out the items they want to
replace which makes analyzing the replacement budget problematic.

I attended two meetings of fellow coordinators and town administrators.
First was a STAM meeting with a presentation by MMA on next year's local
aid revenue estimates. Other meeting was FRCOG and related to the many
technical assistance grants underway and being applied for.

We received the results of the Mt Grace structural analysis which will
lead to some upgrades to allow us to extend the network to un-served
areas of town. I have submitted the results to the State Police and
their consultant.

Reported to Mass Technology Collaborative on our solar install per the
grant requirement On the subject of wood generated by a highway
department, I learned that Whately sells cord wood that town generates
from town trees. It is sold to whoever expresses their interest first.
If it is a town tree in front of a residence they give the landowner
first dibs on the wood otherwise, they put signs up at the transfer
station, website and cable saying that we have cord wood for sale. 
Another town reports that "when our highway/tree department cuts up
trees that are on town property and sells the cordwood on a first come
first serve basis to residents unless the abutting land owner wishes to
keep the wood."  Deerfield administrator recommends the Towns take bids
or auction it off and notes that there's an intrinsic problem with
giving away town property, even if it's cordwood to an abutter. Halifax
Town Administrator recommends handling sale of wood through sealed bids.
"I've been stung too many times by someone showing up and saying 'I wish
I knew you were selling/giving it away'". That way, everyone has a fair
shot. Just decide on what the Town is willing to do ("cut it and load it
on his trailer and either deliver it if it sells to someone in town or
store it for someone to come and get"), set up bid deadlines, etc. I
wouldn't run a legal ad unless you feel that the value is worth it, but
I would notify any interested parties, send out e-mail
announcements/press releases/posters to ensure that anyone who might
have been interested is notified."

Police Department got scammed on some expensive employment law books
that we never ordered and to our knowledge were never received. I am
dealing with it.

Internet CPE grants are still available to residents. IRS income
verification process is the bottleneck.