Coordinator Report Sept 16, 2010 Our grant administrator for the CDBG housing rehab activity has proposed a program amendment, that is to say, a change in the design. We are seeking the Selectboard's permission to proceed with a program amendment for the FY2009 Warwick (Lead), Leverett, Shutesbury, Whately Housing Rehabilitation Program. The proposed change is in the financial recapture method. Current design is 100% deferred payment loan at 0% interest which is to be paid back when the property is sold or transferred. While we have met our goals in terms of residents served, only $282k of $770k has been committed. A considerable number of applicants have withdrawn stating their reluctance to attach more debt to their property. The proposed change will bring us in line with a number of other communities' design where half of the debt is forgiven after fifteen years of ownership. I recommend this change. Once all four Towns have approved, the Housing Authority will hold a hearing and submit the request to the Department of Housing and Community Development. We will also be seeking an extension of time to complete the grant award. Exemptions to the one person one job law are being sought for the election workers. I will have a list to be approved at the meeting. I sent a letter to MBI executive director regarding their plan for subsidy of customer premises equipment. They responded with an invitation to meet with the director and, as well, stated that they would be offering some assistance in four to six months. I plan to proceed with our plan to use closed grant "program income" to provide equipment for low and moderate income residents to access our broadband system provided it is an eligible activity. I would like the board to formally authorize tiers of service to make our offering more affordable and propose half speed for $30 and "faster" than now for $70 per month. These have been recommended by the broadband committee, with special favor for the lower cost offering. We are scheduled to switch our IP addressing from in house to remotely provision. This is a first step to a long planned bandwidth increase and will eliminate a bottleneck in our growing system. Finally, on broadband, I provided some consultation to attorneys working on MBI's request for proposals to operate wireless ISPs from DCR fire towers. That RFP was issued 9-17-10. I attended the STAM annual retreat last week. It was especially valuable to me to underscore how well Warwick, in general, functions. Tim found a better deal for a road grader than the $4400 rental for a month without operator. We are contracting with Beaman of Winchester NH for a road grader with operator for $60 per hour. This helps us both cut costs and provide more personnel. Besides grading roads we have the repair of the box culvert and numerous other highway construction projects to complete before snow. I met with our highway personnel regarding the Town's plans for hiring our fourth man and our plans for compensation. Our two employees are both designated truck drivers and have been operating other machinery. One idea we discussed is having a working above grade pay bump for certain types of work. I favor spreading the $3 we have to work with (from eliminating the equipment operator position) according to merit. I authorized paying both currently employed drivers the same rate. There is no rationale for the disparity. Once we hire the new employee we will set that rate and see what makes sense regarding compensation and incentives. You will see approximately a dollar an hour increase in this pay period for the one employee who was making the lesser amount. This is all well within the budget. Our highway department is exploring acquiring a bucket truck and sharing with another municipality. They will begin enlarging the concrete pad for the new paper compactor at the transfer station next week and work continues on the box culvert repair on Wendell Rd. The board will have short-term borrowing documents to approve and sign at the meeting. We are borrowing $195k to cover chapter 90 expenditures. $60k was for the box culvert and the balance for pavement projects. The WSC sprinkler system repairs are nearly completed. As I write this less than two days work remains under the contract. I missed specifying one dry branch into the unheated storage areas of the gym and the generator room. The contractor wanted $5850 for the job which I was able to negotiate down to a price of $5000 including a preventative maintenance contract with quarterly inspections for three years of which two are under warranty anyway. We will have to spend $2k from the WCS improvement account to make up the additional cost. We got notice from Athol Planning Department regarding status of the NQ Loan Fund which they have taken over administration of with assistance marketing by NQ Community Coalition. I had Tech-1 in to clean up and upgrade town hall computers. They put a secure network between the machines in the Selectboard office, got a printer working on the BOH machine, shared the Selectboard printer and upgraded memory on Conservation, BOH, and Assessors. The building permit has been issued for the Town Hall roof and materials ordered. We are going with a triple laminated architectural grade shingle from Certainteed in cobblestone gray; the lightest color available in this the highest grade product. The contractor is set to start on Sept. 27th. Ryan Lambert is willing to undertake restoration of the sheet metal cap and ornaments. This will require some soldering, some tin knocking and a small amount of re-fabrication. I'll have the custodian then apply an appropriate painted on coating. I am falling behind on scoping and procuring the WCS consulting approved at the most recent annual town meeting. One of the items the committee had on the scope of services was to have the consultant assemble existing documents which I am doing rather than pay someone to hector me to find them and hand them over. This is on my to-do list for next week. The district is filing the SOI (statement of interest) on WCS boiler and roofing upgrades with MSBA. This is a pot of $300M of stimulus funding. Our district is filing for other projects and other districts will be filing for this money. We need the district to file a SOI on the sprinkler repair and they are indicating that the window hasn't opened for that request though it is expected in the fall. I'll work the USDA grant loan at the same time. We opened an account with Gettens Electric so the Tech School can get supplies for the air condition circuit in the town hall and the transfer station compactor installation. Brian Miner completed the restoration of the town hall curtain drains. I am late getting the WCS consulting scoped and procured and you can look for more on that in my next report. Note the request for public comment to the MA AG on proposed remote participation in public meetings. A copy is in the board package. I had to move the meeting on enumeration to the following week due to changes in my meeting schedule. Mr. Whipple requested information regarding the most recent town forest timber sale. It was in the amount of $10,020. The committee had $880.71 on the books as a carryover appropriation. The annual limit on revolving fund is $2000 as voted at Town Meeting. The consulting forester cost was $2,740.71 and was paid from proceeds of sale. The gate cost $3,010. Source was $2k from revolving, $880 from above carryover appropriations and balance of $130 from Selectboard account. There were a lot of phone problems in town over the past few weeks. The sub-station lost a back plane and some boards due to voltage surges and the town hall fire alarm had a lot of failures as a result of no phone lines. A MA state police officer responded at one point. I had the alarm company stop reporting phone out messages for the week. Early this week a nearby lightening strike necessitated that the fire department restart the town hall elevator. Some folks are working on a Halloween party at town hall. This was a regular event at one time. Without being asked I reserved the town hall because groups are getting really sloppy about reservations and somebody is going to be disappointed by my not anticipating their needs. The chairman asked me to locate the original letter to area towns from our planning board regarding comprehensive permits and MGL 40b. I wasn't involved but found the follow-up documents. I have now located the original draft of the letter and it is attached. The Vegetation committee is recommending that the town get easements from landowners to work on private property. A draft is attached. As well a scenic roads cutting form was been drafted and it is attached. Tim reports that there are over four hundred culverts and each have two ends. That could mean 800 easements. He prefers to seek written approval on an as needed basis to work on private land instead of getting easements.