City Manager's Report 12/21/2009
Assessment Update
I have attached some fairly cryptic information given us by the Department of Revenue Administration after they did a preliminary review of our assessments which they do every year. In short, it is saying that our assessments have gotten far enough out of line that we will have to do an assessment update which in fact we have planned on and have scheduled for this year in our budget. What is probably more disconcerting is that it appears that the overall assessment drop which we thought we would get in last year's budget seems to being showing up this year. It looks like we could see an overall property value drop of up to 20% or more.
Laidlaw EFSEC Filing
Late last week we received a copy of the 977 page Laidlaw filing with EFSEC. We have the paper copy in the office which anyone is welcome to come in and peruse. It is also available on line at the following web address.
http://www.nhsec.nh.gov/2009-02/documents/091216application.pdf
Safety Inspection Response
The Council will recall that we had a City-wide safety inspection a few months ago from the New Hampshire Department of Labor. We received an initial review of City operations with corrective actions where needed. Most of the issues dealt with Public Works, the WWTF and BWW. The Schools were separately inspected a year or so ago. All of these Departments have been working on responding to the inspection safety items and have made great progress in dealing with them. On December 16, we submitted a report to the DOL listing this progress as well as where we still had work to do. Overall, this exercise should make these Departments a safer place to work.
Leadership North Country
For the last six years, I have had the honor to be a participant in one of the annual Leadership North Country sessions. This year the session was held at the Erroll Town Hall on Tuesday December 8th, and was aimed at giving this year's class an idea of how the various levels of government in New Hampshire work. Denise Vallee, Ray Burton, Sue Collins and Fred King were the other guest "teachers". This program seems to be a great resourced for developing future leaders for the region.
Bond Issue
I have been working with Bond Counsel, Dave Barnes of Devine Millimet and Dean Ingram of Laconia Savings bank to complete the paperwork for the completion of our $5M bond which is being set up as closed end line of credit.
Dealing with burned out or collapsed buildings
Attached is a memo to Mayor and Council which discusses in some detail some of the issues involved with dealing with burned out or collapsed buildings. Each one is different and decisions made need to take into the account these individual differences in each case.
Memo on Housing
Due to some recent discussions on codes and housing, I have also attached a written piece which puts in some perspective what has occurred with respect to housing in Berlin over the last five or six years.
H1N1 Clinics
Below is the latest schedule for H1N1 Immunization Clinics in the Berlin-Gorham area. This is now open to the general public in Berlin, Gorham, Milan and surrounding towns. These immunization shots are free.
Berlin Health Dept., City Hall -- December 21st, through the end of the month, 1:00 -3:30 pm, (closed for holidays 12/24 and 12/25, 12/31).
Berlin Middle School -- High St. Entrance, January 8th, 1:00 – 7:00pm~ ~& January 9th, 8:30a-3:30pm.
Ed Fenn School – January 4th, 3:30 -6:30pm, Main Entrance.
Milan Village School – to be announced in early January.
Upper Dam Construction Notice
Attached is a notice from Nextera Energy giving notice of a meeting to be held in Augusta, ME which will update interested parties on the renewal of the Upper Dam. This meeting was held on December 15th so we it is to late to attend the meeting. However, I am trust that any interested party could be updated by contacting Nextera Energy Resources.
Day Off
I will be taking off the day before Xmas. Laura Viger will be Acting Manager in my absence.
I would like to wish everyone the very best for the Holidays!!