ROCKLAND — Among the activities that took place in the City of Rockland June 15 to June 19, the recreation department started organizing a summer kick-ball league. Rec. summer day camp begins today. The library will offer its Saturday breakfast and lunch nutrition program. The LSD Tortuga will be in port for the Lobster Festival. Bicycle racks were installed on Main Street, and three new picnic tables have been acquired. The entire report can be read below.

OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR

 Processed Real Estate Transfers, updating parcel cards, sales book, property splits.

 Processed Personal Property accounts, updating ownership, owned items, depreciation, State BETR’S 801 returns, BETE exemptions.

 Processed building permits, reviewing, updating property cards and assessments.

 Analyzing qualified sales of all properties and neighborhoods for a fair and equitable assessment.

 Completing State forms and returning for processing.

 Listening and reviewing properties at the property owner’s request.

 Updating Tax Maps and posting to the web site.

 OFFICE OF THE FIRE CHIEF

In addition to the general response to 39 Fire and EMS calls, conducting apparatus checks, daily cleaning, routine repairs and maintenance to the fleet and of the quarters, the following occurred:

Incidents:

 A Shift responded to the report of a structure fire on Limerock Street. Thankfully it turned out that other than filling the home with smoke, it was only an electrical issue limited to the oven.

Training:

 Our fire officers took part in a regional training on “Portable Pipelines” held at the EMA office. This program covered response concerns for FD’s that may encounter CNG transported over the road. While this was a very informative program, it also validated much of our previous thoughts and plans developed to address FMC’s conversion to CNG.

 Wednesday evening Knox EMA hosted a trainer from XNG who went over their CNG transport trailers and gave a hands-on tour of the same for all firefighters in the area. Our officers had previously had this training with FMC last summer, so this allowed all firefighters to also get hands on with the trailers.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES DIRECTOR

 City-wide trash pick-up.

 Basin work on South Main Street.

 Swept City streets.

 Watered flowers.

 Hauled pallets and small building from Municipal Fish Pier.

 Bicycle racks installed on Main Street.

 Cold patching roads.

 Graded gravel road shoulder at Old County and Route 17.

 Road painting.

 Roadside mowing and lawn mowing.

 Horses and cones put out for weekend event.

 Sign repairs.

 Painted picnic tables.

 Picked paper at transfer station.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR

 Catinka Knoth’s Adult Drawing class featured cedar waxwings and cherries, this week, while Children’s class this week made Fathers’ Day cards.

 The ukuleles for the upcoming series as part of The Arts...for Kids & their Families at the Rockland Public Library (AKA The Arts...), arrived. The tone of these instruments is just beautiful; if I wouldn’t be taking the place of a child, I’d sure love to participate (first four Thursdays in July).

 With regard to the leak in the lines to the AC system chiller, John Dutcher of WWTP and Dave Larrabee of Public Works met together, and with me to look at the possibilities for replacing the pipes to and from the chillers. In addition to the costs for materials John researched, we are waiting for a quote from ABM for laying the pipe. It would be possible, in either case, for Public Works to dig the necessary trenches, if approved.

 The Memoir Writing Workshop was held on Tuesday. This group meets weekly, and is open to anyone who wants to write, share, or just listen.

 Alternating Tuesday’s LEGO Club was Houses, this week.

 We held a College Admissions Talk: How to Create a College List on Tuesday evening. Caitlin Snow Clark shared with families of future juniors and seniors how to begin searching for colleges, how to use online tools and resources effectively, and how to interpret admission and financial aid statistics in order to produce a list of affordable options

 Sargent Lock & Safe replaced the door handle on the upper level fire door/stairwell. The lower level handle was also replaced a few years ago with a better quality product, as they both had loosened to the point where it could be a fire-safety hazard.

 The public fax machine was convinced that it had a paper jam, and no amount of coaxing could change its little mechanical brain. FAX/24 sent a replacement, which arrived within two days, and was substituted.

 I attended a meeting of the Friends’ Board.

 Once again Judith Andersen was guest reader for Wednesday Storytime, and celebrated fathers. Stories included: Dad’s Dinosaur Day, by Diane Dawson Hearn, My Daddy is a Giant, by Carl Norac, Because Your Daddy Loves You, by Andrew Clements, and Your Daddy Was Just Like You, by Kelly Bennett. Miss Judy also read some favorites by Mo Willems and some poems, as well. Following the stories, the children gathered to make Father’s Day Cards via printouts from a Hallmark website.

 The Thursday Evening Arts and Cultural Event was a Gardening Talk: Beyond the Birdfeeder: Creating Backyard Habitat. To be happy and healthy, songbirds need more than black sunflower seed and suet! Hildy Ellis, District Coordinator of Knox- Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, presented a slide program that demonstrates how to use native and non-invasive plants - as well as natural and constructed landscape elements - to provide food, water, shelter and nesting sites for your favorite feathered friends. Hildy provided fact sheets, how-to handouts, and other resources to help make your yard the place where all the birds want to hang out!

 On Saturday--the Summer Reading Kickoff! Local author Eva Murray opened the Summer Reading Program by reading her new children’s book, Island Birthday which “introduces readers to some of the joys--and some of the exasperation!--of remote island life.” Afterwards children were able to sign up for the reading program and take home their first reading logs and activity guide.

Don’t forget, though—the Summer Reading Program is for Young Adults, and Adults, too!

 Upcoming: The Library is a site for the Summer Lunch (and breakfast, too, for the first time) Nutrition Program. Also--Our Neighbors' Gardens Tour to be held Sunday, June 28. This annual garden tour sponsored by the Friends of Rockland Public Library will be held on Sunday, June 28, from 10:00 to 2:00 and features pocket gardens. Come enjoy six small private gardens in Rockland and the gardens of the three Historic Inns in early summer bloom. Advance tickets $12, $15 day of tour, available at the Library from mid-June.

OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL FISH PIER DIRECTOR

 No permits were issued this week.

 The f/v western sea offloaded 550,000 lbs. of herring

 The f/v western wave offloaded 160,000 lbs. of herring.

 Eco Analysts Inc. has estimated how much dredge material needs to be removed to get to a depth of 8’ from around pier - that being 8,000 cubic yards by public floats and 2,000 yards in area of dumping of the snow.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE

 Completed final coordination of the Summer Solstice event scheduled for 06/20/15 from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Main Street.

 Conducted a monthly supervisors meeting.

 Filled the anticipated firearms instructor vacancy with Officer Alex Gaylor (two officers applied for the position by submitting a cover letter and résumé)

 Continued working with the Farnsworth Art Museum concerning the Oak Street Mural Project.

C.I.D

 Met with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to establish operation plan for the arrival of the LSD Tortuga during the Lobster Festival.

 Provided physical security surveys for two local businesses.

 Continued to investigate open cases. C.I.D. currently has six open investigations they are actively working. Ten cases are currently pending review from either the District Attorney’s Office or the United States Attorney’s Office.

 Assisted in the investigation of a 25 year old male who accidentally fell from the deck of a local bar.

Patrol Division

 Officer Solorzano participated in Career Day at the Rockland District Middle School, interacting with students about what it’s like to be a police officer.

 Sgt. Finnegan met with FD Chief Miceli and the director of the Lobster Festival Parade for event planning.

 Sgt. Finnegan met with the Knox County Health Coalition to discuss ongoing projects and grant funding for the enforcement of underage drinking laws.

 Responded to the accidental death of a 25 year old male at a local bar. The male fell from the back deck of the establishment.

 Conducted radar enforcement details.

 Conducted School visits.

 Evening shift had enough staffing to allow for intermittent foot patrols on Main Street.

 Department members participated in the three day on site visit by the Maine Chief’s review team.

OFFICE OF THE RECREATION DIRECTOR

 Three picnic tables were picked up this past week and painted and put in place.

 I have ordered 12 dog waste stations to be installed around the city. They are being made by the prison and put in place by Public Services.

 Day Camp is ready to go for Monday the 22nd. They will be busy this summer and sign-ups are looking good. We have 39 kids for week one and we are still receiving calls about openings for the rest of summer.

 Kick ball sign-ups are out and we are looking to see how many teams we get to start this league.

OFFICE OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY DIRECTOR

Pollution Control Facility

 The treatment plant is running well.

 Plant flows this week have been lower than average, averaging only about 1.9 MGD through the plant.

 The large duplex strainer for the plant water system was replaced. CIANBRO was contracted for the job due to the size of this piece of equipment and the amount of rigging required to move it to the basement pump room and install it.

 Provided SCADA information to Wright-Pierce to be used in the new operations manual that is targeted to be completed by the beginning of August.

 Met with Underwood Engineers to review operations at the plant and discuss possible upgrade projects in the future that they may be able to assist with.

 The main bearing on the grit cyclone was replaced.

 The pump on the polymer blending system was replaced and new pump will be ordered as a spare.

 A boom truck from Rockport Steel was contracted to assist changing the #2 dry weather influent pump and removing and reinstalling the #1 pump for inspection.

 Both effluent contact chambers and the vortex separator were pumped and cleaned.

 The vibration sensor on #2 turbo aeration blower was replaced.

 The lab did BOD & TSS testing for both Vinalhaven and North Haven.

 DMR QA study was done.

 Filed DMR and Tox/Analytical chem report.

Environmental Services

 The monthly sampling and lab analysis of Lindsey Brook has resumed for the warm weather months.

 CCTV inspection of the sewer mains on Crescent, Ocean, Scott, Pacific, and Water Streets are now completed, with over 5000 ft. of sewer main in Rockland south end having been inspected since the end of winter.

 The collection system flow monitoring is going better in June. The programming and communication issues seem to have been resolved. The time devoted to this now is primarily preventative maintenance such as cleaning and replacing batteries.

 We worked through the night on June 10th with two employees from Wright-Pierce to obtain flow information from 24 additional sites with portable instruments.

 Checked a reported sewer blockage in the industrial park adjacent to the U.P.S. facility. The problem was in the private line from their property and U.P.S. contacted Interstate Septic to clear the pipe.

Other Projects

Thorndike Parking Lot

 An on-site meeting was held with Joel Lufkin from Landmark Corp. and Thatcher Silar from Farley & Son to inspect the project and establish a punch-list for completion.

 The parking lines have been blacked out in preparation for painting the new parking layout, currently scheduled to be completed within the next week.

Winter Street

 The new drain pipe and water main have been completed past the new CMCA building.

 The road has been backfilled and graded to this point and is now open from Park Drive allowing access to the Hamilton Marine and municipal parking lots.

Laurel Street

 George Hall & Sons has replaced the sewer main from Water Street as far as #7 Laurel Street and all properties to this point are connected to the new pipe.

 The remainder of the sewer main is expected to be completed by the end of next week.

Rockland Harbor Trail

 Farley & Son has completed installing and compacting stone dust past Pacific Street.

 The new catch basins at Pacific Street and Atlantic Street are installed and connected.

 The remainder of the area from Pacific Street to Atlantic Street has been cleared.