City Manager's Report 03-03-2008
Budget Submission
The City Charter at Sections 19 and 20 requires that, "…the city manager shall prepare a budget for submission to the City Council…" and that "…The city manager shall submit the proposed budget to the city council at least ninety (90) days before the start of the fiscal year of the budget."
The City Manager's budget is submitted herewith to the Mayor and City Council for their review and consideration.
NADC Tax Abatements Requests
The Assessing Department has received tax abatement requests from both the Brookfield Hydros and NADC on the properties that they own for the tax year 2007 or FY 2008. These have been forwarded to George Sansoucy who had told us that these abatement requests would be coming in.
Green Street Bridge
The work on the Green Street Bridge was finally suspended by the contractor RM Piper Inc. on February 21st. The Bridge has been open to all traffic since then. It will be closed again for completion of the project once weather conditions are such that the contractor can again start up work.
Paving Credit for Western Avenue
As indicated in the attached letter from Roland Viens, there is a significant paving credit due as a result of the BWW project from a couple of years ago which ended up in litigation and BWW carrying out much of the work itself. Most of this project was funded by Rural Development and the funding must stay with the project. BWW has completed the work it needed to do and is offering to let the City complete final paving on Western Avenue which was part of the project with left over funding. Western Avenue is in tough shape and these funds will certainly help to do a proper final paving of the worst sections of it.
Cole Street over Dead River Bridge Inspection
Attached is the annual State Bridge Inspection Report for the Cole Street Bridge over the Dead River. Each year, the State refers to this as a Red List Bridge but has never been able to tell us what is wrong with it or why it is red list. As far as we know, the bridge complies with every state requirement including proper posting.
Meeting with HHS
Another meeting with HHS on their location in Berlin is planned for Friday March 14th in Concord to further explore ideas for dealing with HHS's desire to relocate in Berlin. Mayor Bertrand, City Planner Pam Laflamme and I will be attending that meeting.
LGC Legislative Dinner on Retirement Issue
As you know the LGC Regional Legislative Dinner on the retirement issue was cancelled due to weather. It has been rescheduled for. A number of City Councilors attended this legislative dinner was held on Wednesday, February 27th, at the T&C and which was devoted to explaining the fairly complicated mess that the NHRS has created for the state and cities and towns which will end up paying heavily to properly fund the retirement system again.
High School Class Visits
Tammy Watson's high school class which attended the Council meeting of 2/18 also attended the staff meeting of 2/19. There was a lively conversation about housing and dealing with problem landlords and tenants. Her class will attend another staff meeting tomorrow.
Concord DES meeting on SRF and permitting
On Monday February 25th, Ernie Allaine, Chris Dwinal of Wright-Pierce and I met with various representatives from the State Department of Environmental Services in Concord regarding both the process of refinancing our sewer improvement projects through the State Revolving Loan Fund and how and in what time frame the permits for these projects must be obtained from the State. It is clear that the time frame we are dealing with with respect to the entire sewer project to get the new prison facility connected by July of 2009 for a prison facility which would like to start up in July of 2010.
An issue arose this week about how whether the BOP was planning for 2500 prisoners or 1250 prisoners as we had been led to believe. Phone calls to several staff in the BOP confirm that the 1250 prisoners is the correct figure and the 255,000 gpd flows that we had been given for planning the sewer impact are in fact correct.
Regional Broadband Forums
As indicated in the attached email from Steve Boucher of DRED has organized a series of forums across the state in order to begin to develop a state-wide broadband action plan. The last one of these is scheduled for Berlin at the College on March 10, at 1pm. People wanting to attend should RSVP by March 7, 2008.
Verizon Notice
We have received the attached notice from Verizon regarding the transfer of its assets to Fairpoint Communications on or about February 29, 2008. Presumably this means we will henceforth be dealing with Fairpoint with respect to the phone company's interest in utility poles which are located in the City's rights of ways.
PNGTS Maintenance Activities
Attached is a letter from Portland Natural Gas Transmission System informing us about maintenance activities that they have going on in their pipe system. The maintenance is to detect weakness or leaks in the piping system and will be an around the clock operation on their pipeline until about March 7th.
Sewer Pump Station Water Meters and Back Flow Devices
As indicated in the attached letter, Berlin Water Works is requiring that the City install water meters and backflow devices at its pump stations on Devens Street and Napert Village.
Manager's Time Keeping
Attached