City Manager's Report 3-17-2008
Fraser STP Tour
On Wednesday March 12th, WWTF Acting Superintendent Henry Noel, PW Director Mike Perrault, Ernie Allain, Chris Dwinal of Wright-Pierce and I toured the Fraser WWTF now owned by the Solid Waste District. The Waste District acquired the plant because all the leachate from the Waste District Mt. Carbury Landfill is deposited there before it drains into the Androscoggin River. The District and the City are looking at alternatives with respect to how best to deal with that leachate. One of the alternatives which is being reviewed by the District and the City is for the City to take and treat the leachate and the City WWTF. The plant is also of interest to the City because of its potential for impounding large amounts of flow in large rain events. Such rain events currently result in Combined Sewer Overflows which are discharged directly into the river without treatment. Needless to say, this result is frowned upon from an environmental viewpoint and the City may in the future be required to find a way to minimize or eliminate it.
Demolition Bids
Sealed Bids were received last week for the demolition of 537 Rockingham and 276 East Mason. Four bids were received and Milan Excavating is the apparent low bidder in the amount of $25,100 for the two buildings. The other bidders were John Gleason in the amount of $29,547, All Ways Wrecking in the amount of $30,100 and Arnold Drouin in the amount of $45,600. The contracts for this demolition have been sent to the apparent low bidder for execution. These properties are adjacent to each other and were both involved in the same fire last year. The City has an RSA 155B order to raze them both.
Pandemic Meeting
On Thursday March 13 the Great North Woods Pandemic Committee chaired by Laura Viger met here in Berlin.~ The committee discussed the development of an Acute Care Center in Berlin that would care for moderately ill persons in the case of a public health pandemic.~
The group reviewed the After Action Report of the recent Pandemic Communication Drill that was executed by the Berlin~Health Department and Elaine Belanger, NH Public Health Network representative to the North Country~committee on January 16 and 17.~ The objectives of the drill included;
1. To identify the best method for contacting volunteers in an emergency
2. To improve procedures for notify and instructing volunteers in an emergency
3. To provide more accurate assessments of the number of volunteers available in an emergency.
The drill was evaluated by Heather Mortenson, the Gorham EMD.~ Overall the After Action Report indicated the drill was very successful in testing the call down list of volunteers.~ Those participating were well trained, keeping contact information up to date and in giving directions and information to each other and to the volunteers.~
This drill was part of the Pandemic Committees requirement by the State of NH.
Roof Concerns
Two weeks ago, we became concerned about flat roofs of City buildings. We hired a local contractor to remove snow from the roof of the Maynesboro Industrial building that we own in the industrial park. We also checked with the schools to be sure that everything was under control with school roofs as well. It seems that we got through this heavy snow load period without incident.
State-wide Emergency Management Conference Call on Flooding
On Thursday, March 13 a conference call was organized by Governor Lynch and Christopher Pope, Director of NH Bureau of Emergency Management to update local communities on
1. weather and flood predictions and expectations
2. how communities can reduce their own flood risks
3. State assistance that is available
4. procedures in the event of a flooding situation
Director Christopher Pope, NH BEM discussed the situation reports that his office are sending relative to a variety of emergency related matters, including flooding.~ He discussed that his staff is always available for conference calls and~offering resources to the local communities.
DES has been tracking the snow pack and has found that in mid-February the snow pack was 7.5"and is now at 6", the normal level for this time of year is 4" snow pack.~ Steve Doyon, from DES, reports they are doing wkly snow sampling and tracking.~ Monitoring of dams is extremely important at this time.~ DES is taking the responsibility of monitoring the Jericho Lake Dam now that the State has taken ownership of the park.~ Ice jamming was discussed.~
Meeting with HHS
On Friday March 14th Mayor Bertrand, Pam Laflamme and I met with Administrative Services in Concord to further explore ideas for dealing with HHS's desire to relocate in Berlin. Present at that meeting was developer Robert Hanson who is a developer who has shown a good deal of interest in Berlin and has made proposals to the State before with respect to the HHS and Court desire to relocate in Berlin. A number of options were reviewed and will continue to be pursued. The State's current RFP has a deadline for responses of April 8th.
Meeting with NHDOT
Also on Friday March 14th, we met with Acting Highway Commissioner Jeff Brillhart and some of his staff regarding road and utility issues on East Milan Road leading to the BOP prison facility site. Apart from the issue of the BOP not having planned for the coordination of the provision of utilities to its site, it also had not planned for the damage to East Milan road that the trucking to the site might cause. The NHDOT posts the road at this time of year prohibiting heavy trucks during mud season. They required that Bell-Heery post bonds for all the heavy trucks that would be delivering to the prison site. Bell-Heery, claiming that their only responsibility was to the BOP for on-site work, was very unhappy about this and felt it would be very difficult to accomplish. The BOP apparently has not worked in a state like New Hampshire before where developers are responsible for all these types of items and are used to States building roads for them rather then them having to be responsible for off-site roads that are damaged.
Regional Broadband Forums
Last Monday at the College, Andre Caron and I attended one of a series of Broadband Forums that are being held across the state by the Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED). DRED obtained a grant and has organized this series of forums across the state in order to begin to develop a state-wide broadband action plan. The development of a state-wide plan is probably a good thing as it will probably be difficult to develop such a plan without including the North Country. However, it goes without saying that even with a plan, no one is very clear at this point on how such a plan might get funded.
Manager's Time Keeping
In response to requests for more information about how my time is spent, I began on Tuesday March 4th, after the last Council Meeting keeping a brief log of how my time was spent. That is attached for your information.