City Manager's Report 1/5/2009

City Planner Recognized

I am very proud to say that Berlin's City Planner who has already been selected for the Union Leader's "40 Under 40" award a few years ago has been selected by the Business New Hampshire Magazine as one of New Hampshire's 25 Leaders for the Future. This is a very well-deserved honor for Pam who is undoubtedly one of the finest City Planners in the State. I have attached excerpts from the January '09 issue of the magazine which explains a little about the award and Pam's selection.

Court Orders

Attached are a group of court orders issued as a result of RSA 155B orders that the Council has authorized. Needless to say, these come at the end of a long and arduous process that the City goes through to achieve these orders. The orders themselves are needed and worthwhile. However, even with such an order, if a property owner decides that there isn't enough value in the property to make it worth dealing with the liens, nothing prevents them from simply walking away. The new state law which allows us to lien other properties in NH of the owner will help in this regard if the property owner owns other properties in NH. These orders started before that new law became effective. Hopefully, they will at least bring the situation with each property to a head where even if the property owner walks, the City will end up with the property and can take appropriate action to keep it from becoming a problem for the future.

NHDOT RT 110 Phase II Historic Meeting in Concord

Pam Laflamme and I attended a meeting of the State and Federal historic people in Concord where they were going through a tedious process of trying to rank the impact that each historic property had on the area. This process took all day and they just did one of the alternatives. They have a second meeting for this planned this Wednesday. Frankly, from my perspective, the meeting was a large waste of time and money and I don't plan to attend this next one. Pam will go just to be sure that nothing happens that we are not aware of.

Leadership North Country

For the last five years, I have participated in one of the annual Leadership North Country sessions. This year the session was held at the Errol Town Hall on Tuesday December 9th, and was aimed at giving this year's class an idea of how the various levels of government in New Hampshire work. Bill Jackson, Ray Burton, Senator Gallus and Fred King were the other guest "teachers".

Laidlaw Closing

The rumor had been going around last week that Laidlaw was actually closing with NADC on the pulp mill property. We weren't sure if it was real this time or just more public relations stuff. Apparently, according to the paper, this time they have actually purchased the property from NADC.

Roger Brooks Presentation - Colebrook Elementary School

The final Roger Brooks "New Hampshire Grand" presentation was held at the Colebrook Elementary School on Monday December 15th. I don't believe anyone from the City was able to make it, but we do have a DVD of the presentation if anyone would like to see it. Apparently, the three Grand Hotels - the Balsams, Mt. Washington and Mountain View -- are all on board with the program and also the idea of including the Wentworth Inn with the these three North Country Grand Hotels was pretty much nixed. The comments collected at these presentations will now be used to modify the final plan which is to be provided to the County this month.

PT Building Inspector Interviews

We have conducted interviews to fill the building inspector position left when Chip Carpenter retired this fall. Anticipating budget issues, we advertised the position as a part-time position rather than full-time. Even so, we have informed the candidates that we will not fill the position until we are far enough along in the budget process to be comfortable that the position will be funded in the next budget.

Skateboard Park Improvements

Attached is a memo from Laura Viger which details some improvements that were undertaken at the City's skateboard park at Community Field. The Council may recall that a local skateboarder complained at a Council meeting about the conditions of the park. These improvements were undertaken as a result of his complaints. The young gentleman then commented in the newspaper that he appreciated the improvements.

ATV Meeting

On Thursday December 11, NH Trails Chief Chris Gamache was in town again and met with various staff and Councilor Cayer to continue the discussion of the ATV trails in the area and in particular about what was necessary to complete the link across town from Jericho to Success. The State is still working on a good map showing the existing trail routes in the area as well as the obstacles to connecting the routes needed to be prepared. The next meeting is set for this Thursday morning at 8:30am and Chris Gamache is planning to attend the Council work session on the 12th.

Rene Gagnon Retirement

Public Works Foreman Rene Gagnon has given notice of his retirement effective March 6th. Rene has been with the Public Works Department for 40 years and his service to the City will be greatly missed.

School Donation To Public Works

Public Works is extremely happy to have the addition of a Bridgeport machine tool and a metal lathe that the Berlin School District has very kindly donated to them. The machines were surplus to the School District but still have some significant value to them and can be put to great use by the trades people at the public works garage.

Engineering RFQ

Public Works has put out a Request for Qualifications for assistance from engineering firms in getting some our CIP projects to a point engineering-wise that we could put them out to bid in the event federal stimulus funding becomes available this year. There has been quite a bit of interest in this work. These RFQ's are due this Wednesday. After reviewing them, it is likely that a number of the firms will be chosen for interviews in order to get to a recommended firm or firms to bring to the Mayor and Council for approval to enter into a contract with.

Public Works Report

Attached.

Time Warner Cable Franchise Fee

Attached is a copy of the calculation performed by Time Warner to arrive at the 3% Franchise Fee that they pay the City every year.

Manager's Time-Keeping