City Manager's Report 5/4/2009

Swine Flu

In spite of still being technically 'at home,' Laura Viger and her assistants in the Health Department have kept Berlin very much in the middle of all the planning going on in preparation for whatever may develop with the national swine flu concern. There is ongoing communication in the region and with the State by e-mail and conference call in preparation for all the various matters that will need to be taken care of if the flu becomes more serious in this area.

Trails Project Approved for Funding

We have received word that our application to DRED for some trails funding has been approved in the amount of $25,000 with a local in-kind match of $6,250. This should give our local trails groups some money to work with in its efforts to improve our local trails system through the City.

RSA 155B Orders and Meeting with Kandel and Woelfsjaeger

Contrary to what I previously indicated, the status of the RSA 155-B's with respect to the burnt out properties (74-80 and 90-92 Main Street) on Main Street in downtown is that we have just reached the stage where the Chief is asking the court to enforce the order brought by the Mayor and Council. The Order was signed by the Mayor and Council on March 30, 2009. April 28th was the deadline for the respondent to contact the Chief with a disposal and/or razing plan. Since no answer was received, the Chief has conducted the required inspection and now is in the process of asking the Court to enforce the orders. If awarded this enforcement judgment, the City will be able to enforce the order sixty (60) days after the award. If the order stands uncontested it will take about 70 days from the award to be able to move forward. If the order is contested, then it is hard to predict the amount of time necessary.

In any event, a meeting was held with Mr. Kandel and one of his partners a Mr. Woelfsjaeger on Tuesday April 21st at his request to go over the situation with the insurer to see what possibilities might exist. The City was represented by Chief Trull, Andre Caron and me. Mr. Kandel was advised that the City is proceeding with its RSA 155B order and that it intended to proceed with that order in spite of any discussions occurring at this meeting. The insurance company for Kandel on 90-92 Main Street Great Western was represented by Adjuster Larry Lombardi. There was a good deal of discussion about the amount of insurance money available from the company for demo and cleanup of 90-92 Main Street. This amount is between $30k and $40k for 90-92 Main only. Depending on the environmental condition of the properties, the clean up could run anywhere from the $40-$50k range to the $100k range. Because of this it was felt that getting an environmental going on this made sense and the insurance company agreed to pay for part or most of this review. If it turns out that the properties are clean (pretty unlikely), then it might make sense to move forward and clean up the property simply with the insurance proceeds. If the properties are not clean, then the cleanup will likely be much more expensive and probably require going the full RSA 155B route.

Notices to Quit  

The Fire Chief has ordered the following building vacated due to continuing Life Safety Code violations:

95 Mason Street (total vacate)

522 School Street (total vacate)

575 Champlain Street, Apts 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 with apts. 1 & 2 remaining occupied.

Meeting with Laura Simoes of Senator Shaheen's Office

On Wednesday April 29th, Mayor Bertrand, Pam Laflamme and I met with Laura Simoes of Senator Shaheen's office to review the various matters Berlin is engaged with ranging from the Rt. 110 Phase II project and the issues surrounding that with the State and Federal government to our discussion with the Federal Prison over connecting them to City sewer.

Saturday Fires

On Saturday we had two fires. One was a shed and the other was a multi-family dwelling at 790 Third Ave. This latter is a recently vacated structure and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. The crew that was working that night did an excellent job containing the damage. The interior stairwell sustained minor damage.

National Fire Academy Class

On April 18 and 19th, the Fire Department hosted a National Fire Academy Class titled "Preparation for Initial Company Operations". The Class was held at the WMCC. 28 FF's from municipalities all over the state participated.

WMCC Ribbon Cutting

On Thursday April 23rd, the White Mountain Community College held a ribbon cutting and celebratory dinner to commemorate all the new improvements and addition to the college's facilities. President Kathy Eneguess provided a review of the college's current program and future plans. The improvements are quite impressive and provide a feeling of both warmth and newness to the facility. The center piece of all the new improvements is the student lounge which includes facilities all designed to encourage students to meet and get to know each other and create more of a connection among all the students.

Legislative Matters

As pointed out at a recent budget session, the cut of revenue sharing in the State budget will affect very negatively next year's budget ($1.1M revenue reduction), it also reduces this year's budget revenues by about $475K. This is because Revenue Sharing payments made on July 1, have always been treated as a receivable in the previous fiscal year budget. Because of this, it will be very difficult to end the year with any operating surplus on the City side as that whole loss has to be made up before any surplus could accrue. Obviously, an operating deficit will further reduce the City's current Undesignated Fund Balance of $822M. We had hoped this year that any operating surplus would be added to the UFB as it routinely should be in order to get it up to at least the Council's goal of the minimum 5% of appropriations (the way the state figures it) or about $1.1M. It does not look like that will be able to happen this year.

It should also be noted that even though Rooms and Meals appears to be re-instated in the state budget ($440K in our case), that amount may be reduced by about 1% in each year of the state budget biennium because of a House footnote at the back of the budget to make it balance.

The New Hampshire Municipal Association is supporting the House version (HB2 vs. the Governor's) because the House version includes a $.05 increase in the gas tax for each of the next three years which would yield increase in municipal Highway block grant funding in the future. This would go a small distance toward restoring some of the recent cuts in state revenue sharing.

There are a series of retirement bills to be heard tomorrow before the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee in LOB Room 101. These include HB 420 relating to Group II accidental disability retirement allowance, HB 532 which would exclude private duty pay from earnable compensation, HB 590 which would increase the Group II retirement age from 45 to 50 and the years of service from 20 to 25 for new hires after July 1, 2009, and HB 641 which relates to the so-called spiking provisions and how employers have to pay for it.

HB 121 is a so-called Revenue Enhancement Bill for municipalities. This bill would establish a study commission to examine "potential revenue enhancements" for municipalities which face demands for services which are disproportionate to their populations. Since "Home Rule" does not exist in New Hampshire, municipalities are not free to create their own revenue laws, but must instead rely on whatever the state devises in its laws.

Truck Route Signage

The old truck route signs are pretty well down and the new ones are pretty much up. Now the PWD and the PD will be embarking on an education program with temporary signs and such to educate the truckers to the new route before actual enforcement begins.

Public Works Report

Attached.

Manager's Report

Attached.