City Manager's Report 3/2/2009
AVRRDD District Meeting
Another AVRRDD District meeting was held last Thursday evening. Both our engineers Wright-Pierce and the District's Engineers were there and reviewed the latest figures with the District Board as well as the position taken by the Mayor and Council which had been supplied to the Board earlier. The District's Engineer Mike Crawford said that with the latest figures in review, it appeared as though all of their options were essentially equivalent. He did express concern though that the City's future capital cost undertakings which the District would have to participate in in the future might be difficult for the District to handle. Board Members Dave Tomlinson and Yves Zornio had made a visit to the City WWTF and told the Board that they were very impressed with the first class operation that the City runs there. It is clean and it is clear that all the equipment is being extremely well maintained. Nevertheless, the Board without any discussion from the Board Members who ended up voting against it, voted down a motion to go with the City's plant by a vote of 5-4.
Rt 110 Phase II Public Informational Meeting
The NHDOT Public Informational Meeting which was originally scheduled for Thursday February 19th in the City Hall Auditorium has been re-scheduled to Thursday March 19, 2009 at 6:30pm. Again, we need to have the same type of turnout that was obtained at the last hearing on this important matter for the City. Probably as a result of that last hearing, the momentum seems to have swung much more toward Alternative 4E. That momentum needs to be maintained.
Chamber Annual Meeting
The Androscoggin Valley Chamber of Commerce is really coming on strong. Its Annual Meeting at the T&C attracted some 250 people which was quite a turnout for a Chamber that almost wasn't a year of so ago. The group was addressed by Mayor Bertrand on behalf of Berlin, Bill Jackson on behalf of Gorham and Steve Barba as the keynote speaker.
A really great video (with music) was shown which everyone should see which depicts the growth of Berlin and the area over its history with commentary from local people. The video contains beautiful pictures of Berlin and it history and is inspiring. We are going to look into seeing if we can't some how make it or perhaps a shortened version of it available on our web site.
Community Services Director Illness
I am not happy to report that Laura Viger had gone in for some scheduled surgery and was recovering from it at AVH when late last week it appears that she had some type of heart attack. She was transferred to CMC in Manchester and I was able to visit with her Sunday afternoon. She looked good and seemed in good spirits. The complication is that apart from maintaining her status, the doctors don't want to take any intrusive further actions to diagnose the heart situation until her surgery has had the chance to heal further. As usual, Laura is more worried about when she can get back to work than being sure she takes good care of herself.
Stimulus Funding
Staff is continuing to submit applications for capital projects every chance we get in the hope of getting some federal stimulus funding. Of course it is likely that most other municipalities in the state are doing the same thing. On Friday, which was the cut-off date for their stimulus funding applications, we submitted three stimulus funding project requests to DES. These were for WWTF improvements, Rt. 110 sewer and storm drain improvements in the storm drain which runs near IGA.
Money that should be going to bridge projects across the state looks like it will be lost to State projects in the I-93 corridor and the Conway bypass. However, there may be other pots under which our bridge and road projects may have a shot at funding.
Some very disappointing news was reported in the NHMA Legislative Bulletin #9. Apparently, it has been determined that the only municipalities which may apply directly to the US Department of Energy for stimulus funding are municipalities of greater than 35,000 population or a population which puts the municipality in the top ten population communities in the state. Unfortunately, Berlin is currently around 29th in population in the State.
NHMA Membership Meeting
Due to the weather, the NHMA membership meeting which was to be this morning was canceled and re-scheduled for Wednesday, March 11, 2009 in Concord at the LGC offices at 9:30am.
ATV Meeting and Snowmobile Tour
Two ATV trails meetings have been held in the last two weeks. The first was held on Friday February 20th and further explored ATV trail development in and around Berlin. A second meeting was held this past week.
The Ray Burton, Trails, Fish and Game snowmobile tour last Wednesday had a beautiful day for their riding. They held a mid-day lunch at J's Corner in Gorham where all the various participants ranging from the Nationals Forest people to the Androscoggin Valley Snowmobile Club talked about the various efforts being made to improve both snowmobile and ATV trail use in the area.
Census Meeting
Chief Morency and I met with a representative of the US Census Bureau to begin to prepare for the next US census which is coming up and will be carried out between now and the end of the decade. Needless to say, this effort will included employing people from the area to assist with taking the census. We have some initial information and contact information for people who may be interested in that.
Legislative Matters
SB99
SB 99 is scheduled for Senate hearing tomorrow at 9:30am in LOB 102. This bill would authorize auto dealers to, "process motor vehicle registration transfers and title applications for new and used vehicles sold by the dealer and motor vehicle registration renewals." Municipal permit fees are one of the largest sources on non-property tax municipal revenue that municipalities take in. This bill on its face would basically have the auto dealers take the municipal agent fee and the municipal permit fee Berlin currently collects and transfer them to Gorham where the automobile dealers are located. What can I say? The legislature is back in session. Fortunately, NHMA opposes the bill and will undoubtedly take that position at the hearing.
HB673
Another bill HB 673 is a bill which NHMA supports which would amend legislation which would allow municipalities to withdraw from the NH Retirement System. The amendment would be to make it clear that a municipality can withdraw all non-vested and new employees from the NHRS which isn't currently clear. If the State is going to be cutting back on funding the retirement system that it created and thereby pass additional costs on to municipalities then certainly municipalities should have the option of withdrawing from the system and looking at other options. The hearing on this amendment is also tomorrow in LOB 306 at 11am.
HB 644
This bill would add would increase the gas tax over three years by 15 cents and would thereby increase the amount of municipal revenue aid received through the highway block grant by about by about $300,000 at the end of third year. Since the state is taking away millions it would be nice to receive a few hundred thousand of it back over the next couple of year. However, there is not guarantee that they wouldn't come right back with a bill to take that away as well.
State Budget Hearing
A reminder that the State is holding a public hearing on the state budget on Monday March 16th at 6pm at the White Mountains Regional High School Auditorium in Whitefield.
Manager's Time-keeping
Attached.