Coordinator Report
May 13, 2010

Conservation Commission has some vacancies. Karro Frost asks that Ann
Kendall and Gregory Brodsky be appointed.

Sprinkler - The Town received two proposals for the WCS sprinkler
system. One was to repair the existing "dry" portion of the system. It
offered a one year warranty. Our bid documents specified a two year
warranty. The repair proposal is from the company that has a contract
with the school district and who have knowledge of and have repaired the
system on two occasions in the past.

The other proposal was submitted by Simplex Grinnell and is to replace
the branch lines and employ a "wet" system in heated areas and dry
system only in unheated attic, etc.

We learned from interviews that water in a dry system becomes very
corrosive to metal because of the compressed air super oxygenating the
water. There are groves in the installed branch pipe joints that hold
water even when properly pitched.

I assembled an ad hoc committee consisting of myself, Jim Toth, Rick
Abbott, and Les Goodman to read and review the proposals. We interviewed
both firms and unanimously agreed that the technical proposal to
substantially replace the dry system with a wet one was superior.

Having selected the SimplexGrinnell proposal we opened their price
proposal. It was for $196,000.  After considerable discussion the
committee recommends that we go back out to bid to see if we can bring
the price down. The committee requested that I write a "word picture"
for a scope of services and go back out to bid. I have a better idea.

I propose that we engage Simplex to write a biddable scope narrative,
project specifications, so hydraulic calculations and generate biddable
plans so we can go to bid for a general contractor.  They gave us a 10
to 15% break out for design in the interview. I negotiated a price of
$27,600 for this engineering. With that in hand we can go for a price
bid.

Demolition of the portions of the system to be removed is a substantial
expense ($20 - $25k). I am looking into having portions of the system
that is to be re-used capped so that what must be removed might be done
by town employees as force account to lower costs. I'll continue to
investigate this which will have to be approved by the fire chief. It
could cut the demolition cost in half.

There are some other technical matters we can refine and possibly save
some money. One is assessing and saving sprinkler mains in the existing
design.  Another is using CPVC piping on branch lines. The materials are
a little more costly but steel is going up fast and we might see 10-15%
labor cost savings. We'd be then using plastic in areas that are the
most labor intensive to install.  The fittings and pipe are rated at 250
psi.

A matter that I didn't include in the bid is carpentry / drywall repair.
 We'll have to figure on that expense whether at prevailing wage as part
of the bid or as an additional contract.

WCS - the Community School got a grant and received a fifteen foot tall
disease resistant elm tree. They want to know if they need our
permission to plant it. Once that is decided I'll ask the highway
department to assist with the town backhoe.

WBS - After having some success with targeted post card marketing for
broadband we did the first town wide post card blitz last week. It
resulted in two firm orders and six other inquiries. Next month we will
be increasing our bandwidth buy to 10Mbts which will get us back to
industry standard for bandwidth behind each customer of about 1Mbts /
ten users.  We will be re-provisioning the cell tower which has
previously been acting as a substation of one of the mountain's access
points.

I am in discussion with the Housing Authority regarding reprogramming
some CDBG repaid grant money to supporting low income residents' access
to our broadband system.  Is the board supportive?

You may have seen news reports that Mass Tech Collaborative and DCR have
signed a MOA that allows the Collaborative to locate wireless broadband
equipment on fire towers across the state.  This comes out of a long
process that began about the time we signed our agreement with DCR. 
Looks like the Collaborative will own the equipment and allowing
competing WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Providers) on them. This is
basically our model.

I hope the Broadband Institute will be implementing something soon on
the matter of wireless last mile because their not doing so is hindering
adoption in New Salem and Wendell among others. Nobody in the business
wants to begin serving an area only to have their competitor
subsidized.

I propose we schedule a special town meeting for June 7 at 7 pm so we
can address the broadband borrowing errors. These were: 1. not borrowing
externally and then 2. finding that the documentation in the minutes
does not reflect a 2/3 vote as required. This will add $37k to free cash
for next year.