City Manager's Report 5-5-2008
Hero's ceremony at State House
Last Thursday at 3 pm in a ceremony sponsored by the Union Leader and Citizen's Bank to honor citizens and public safety employees who have engaged in great acts of heroism over the past year in New Hampshire, Police Cpl. Kerry Therriault, Sgt. Richard McClure and Fire Captain Rob Jewett were honored for their heroism in the January 2007, fire on Main Street. In a ceremony outside on the State House lawn Governor Lynch presented each of them with an award commemorating their heroism and service to their City.
Green Street Project Phase 2
As indicated on the attached amendment to the DOT's 10 year highway plan, this project has been moved out two years from 2009 to 2011 for construction. Given that the funding for this is already available from the Federal Government ($6M obtained by Senator Sununu), this project is continuing to move forward and this delay really shouldn't be a problem from our end given that we have been tied up in the argument over the historic preservation issue for well over a year. The estimated cost of the project is currently $7,250,000 of which the City's share will be about $1,450,000.
Line Painting
Weather permitting, street line painting will start this Wednesday at 8pm. L&D is the contractor who got the bid this year.
Police Impound Site
All of the liquid asphalt which was in the ground at the site of the liquid asphalt tanks next to the Rec park and PD on Gill Street has been cleaned up with a Brownfields grant orchestrated by Andre Caron. The site is now clean and ready to be developed for the Police Impound building which we have planned for a few years.
EPA Lab
Last Friday I attended what is called an EPA Lab in Chelmsford, MA in Andre Caron's absence. The purpose of the Lab was to have EPA go over with all the municipalities in New England who were selected for Brownfields grants to fill out the final paperwork to actually get the grant. In our case, it is the $200k cleanup grant for the old Notre Dame Building. We will have to get all this paper work in this month and keep this project rolling.
Annual Report for FY07
The City Annual Report for FY2008 has been published for distribution to the public. Sue Tremblay quietly put this report together every year which summarizes the year's activities by Department.
Highway Safety Grant DWI Patrols
Attached is a communication from NH Highway Safety indicating that the Berlin PD has been approved for funding for "Berlin Statewide DWI Hunter Patrols". These funds will pay for overtime DWI patrols this summer.
2008 National Chapter Public Relations Award Winner
Attached is a letter to the Berlin High Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) which indicates that they have been selected as the FCCLA 2008 National Chapter Public Relations Award Winner. This will be formally announced during the National Leadership Meeting in Orlando Florida. Congratulations to the Berlin High FCCLA!
Legislation
Sadly, the State Senate appears to be doing its political thing by essentially watering down all the long overdue retirement system reforms that were included in the House version of HB 1645. Rather than reproduce the long and frustrating story here, please refer to Legislative Bulletin #20 for the complete story.
On the happier side, the Senate Public Affairs and Municipal Affairs Committee has recommended HB 1408 which amends the Right to Know law to clarify its application to electronic records and communications. NHMA feels it is a good piece of legislation. The bill goes to the full Senate this Thursday May 8th. Also with respect to the Labor bills we have been following, HB 1436 which would require an evergreen clause in every negotiated contract has been recommended to be killed on a 5-1 vote by the Senate Commerce, Labor and Consumer Protection Committee.
On Thursday May 1st, HB 1573 which is our bill which attempts to allow us to lien all the properties in the state of an owner whose property burns down and allows us to get at the owner's insurance proceeds was reported out as "Ought to Pass". Because it has been amended again, it needs to go back to the House for concurrence on the amendment. Hopefully, this will occur without incident.
Manager's Time Keeping
Attached.