City Manager's Report 02/05/2007
Pulp Mill Taxes
I am happy to report that the Pulp Mill taxes for this year have been paid in full.
PlaceNameplaceDead PlaceTypeRiver Channel Project
We were recently contacted by the US Natural Resources and Conservation Service who want us to sign off on closing out the Dead River Project which included the damming and channeling of the Dead River and dates back from the late 60’s. This is quite interesting to us because a number of staff have spent time working with property owners on Main Street to try to figure out what can be done with the river which is eating away the foundations of the buildings which face on Main Street.
We will be meeting soon with the State Conservation Engineer in order to get a review of the original project and hear why it should be closed out as well as discuss what may be done with the River in Moxie Alley in the future to inhibit further property damage.
High School and Jr. High Projects
Public Works Director Ernie Allain has met with a teacher, Nicole Arguin, at the Jr. High to review a survey her students are doing on recycling in the City of CityplaceBerlin. We are hoping that this survey, in addition to being a learning tool for StateBerlin students, may help give us some additional information about how we can increase the level of recycling in StateplaceBerlin. Increasing the level of recycling in StateplaceBerlin we believe to be “low hanging fruit” in terms of reducing the cost of solid waste the City has to pay.
We will also be meeting with Tammy Watson and Dave Morrisette at the High School to talk about how to approach a type of civics class student in government day. The Council talked about this recently and it has been done in different forms in the past as it has in many other communities.
Housing Inspections
As a result of the meeting with the Governor which was held on January 11th, we have continued meeting with the State Deputy Fire Marshall in preparation for significant additional housing inspections to be made with the assistance of the State Fire Marshall’s office probably some time in March. These inspections will likely utilize our staff as well as staff which the Fire Marshall’s office will be bringing in order to visit a large number of buildings in the community to ensure basic life safety compliance in these multi-family structures.
AVER and Chamber
There have been a number of meetings held recently by AVER and the transition committee of the Chamber of Commerce. The meetings are aimed at figuring out the future of both organizations and their respective roles in the placePlaceNameAndroscoggin PlaceTypeValley. AVER has received a $20k grant to hire consulting assistance in this regard. AVER has hired PersonNameJim Wagner for this purpose.
Meeting with PSNH
The Council will recall that the Police Department obtained a $240k homeland security grant in order to install wireless Internet so that the police would all be linked by laptop. A hitch was run into in installing these on the PSNH/Verizon utility poles in the City. We met with PSNH on 1/10/07 in placeCityManchester and it seems that the issue of pole locations was resolved as was the issue of paying for the electricity. The PD is hoping to finish this project this month.
DES Public Education Meeting on Former Chlor-Alkali facility
NHDES will be holding a public education meeting at the placePlaceNameBerlin PlaceTypeCity Hall on Tuesday February 27th from 4-6pm to review and educate the public on the clean up project as well as the fish advisory they have issued. Citizens will have the opportunity to meet one on one with DES staff to discuss any concerns they may have.
AVRRDD Annual Report
A copy of the Waste District’s Annual Report is attached.
Primex Training on Risk Management
Primex, our property liability, health and Worker’s Comp. insurer will be providing a training workshop to the City’s Joint Loss Prevention Committee (JLPC) on Thursday March 1, 2007, in the City Hall auditorium. The workshop which will put on by Nick Manolis will be on Building and Maintaining a Positive Risk-Management Culture.
Manager’s Timekeeping
Attached.