Coordinator report July 12, 2017

I am taking the week of Jul 31 thru Aug 4 off for vacation and will miss
the regularly scheduled meeting on the 31st.

Rosa has developed a list of positions that ought to be declared
"special municipal" and individuals to make grants of exemption. This
allows folk to serve in more than one capacity and is an exemption
available only to small towns.

Based on the most recent email on the subject Doc is meeting with Sue
and she is working on the scope of service for our Community Compact
Grant application. I don't know the timeline for completing and
submitting. 

As of noon today we have three of twelve poles installed. One site so
far is going to need ledge broken. I've requested the loan of a tool
that will fit our JD backhoe of Westfield G&E. Another way will be to
get a blasting contractor in for the difficult sites. We will come back
to the difficult sites after we have attempted at every site. WBS has
gotten great help from both Highway Department and Warwick PD. Tasks
include moving the poles to the set sites, standing by with backhoe and
digging when needed, and hauling suitable fill material to the sites
where the drill needed boulders dug out. Next Wednesday we are scheduled
to climb a tower and complete the 900 and 5 GHz radio rings on Orange
Rd. There are two makers of LTE equipment that operates in our licensed
band and I am arranging to test both. In one case there is a $3k cost
and the other manufacturer loans the equipment. I want to test their
interoperability because one maker has a far superior tower solution but
the other has a better array of end user devices with numerous antenna
gain options. 

The legislature has sent the FY18 State budget to the governor's office
and we will have a more complete revenue picture in a couple of weeks.
The fin com is meeting Monday prior to the Selectboard meeting to
consider two reserve fund transfers.

We received word that "our" West Brookfield solar project is
"interconnected" which I think means the revenue meter is installed just
in time to begin to accrue income that will be in excess of our
projection and result in greater free cash in the future.

Town got the new "mini pumper" firetruck from Somers CT. It was on hand
for an event last weekend honoring Deputy Chief Weld for his years of
service to the Town. The budget will be the purchase price of $35k plus
about $2,500 for new tires. TM voted $75k and that is what we will have
to tax unless the board calls a Special Town Meeting to reduce the
appropriation.

I got word that the rebate check for the heat pump work will be
delivered on Monday along with paper copies of the user manuals. We are
using the rebates, per the Green Communities Grant terms, to help meet
the cost of these upgrades. Town received the $100k designated for town
forest land acquisition this week. I've extended our thanks to Senator
Rosenberg's office for their efforts.