Prior to Oct. 30, Rockland Public Library received a $500 donation from a patron who is moving from Rockland to be closer to family. Most of the harbor floats have been secured for the winter. Herring season has officially ended. Three damaged park benches were removed, and new ones were installed. After last week’s storm, there were some reports of flooding, and a couple of skiffs were swamped. The assistant manager/community development director continues work on finding or developing space for small-scale specialty food manufacturers (food business incubators). And there were 11 motor vehicle crashes and seven animal complaints. 

Read the entire City Manager’s Report below.

OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER

Finalized the Department of Labor Certification of Abatement forms and posted them in all the departments. I personally inspected all departments for compliance. All documentation has been submitted to DOL in a timely fashion.

Reviewed and submitted all three Teamster contracts to legal for review. We will introduce these to the City Council for adoption at the next meeting. The Union has yet to ratify the contracts, but that is because of the review process.

Met with Evan Coleman, Rockland Energy Center; Mayor Isganitis and Audra Caler-Bell to discuss some of the leading residents’ concerns regarding the power plant. Mayor Isganitis was brilliant in explaining to Mr. Coleman that pledging to some of the aspects we discussed privately would be very receptive to the community.

Attended Rotary breakfast with Dr. Hebert.

Coordinated and facilitated the RSU #13 participating municipal officials meeting. I believe that this meeting went well without much guidance.

Coordinated and facilitated the Transient Housing Accommodations workshop. I believe that we got to a place to bring something forward for the next meeting.

Attended the Renew Rockland Forum. The event went very well and brought meaningful value to the policy discussions surrounding the power plant.

Continued working with MDOT to capitalize on the FY 17 work plan.

Continued working on recruiting an Assistant Code Enforcement Officer.

Responded to several constituent issues.

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR

I forgot to mention in last week’s report, that the Library received a lovely donation of $500, from a patron who is moving from Rockland to be closer to the family. This gift is “in appreciation for all the joy and pleasure the Rockland Public Library has given both to me and my late husband.” 

Keith Drago offered Drop-in Tech Help—this is available on Monday evenings; patrons may also make appointments for personal assistance.

Catinka Knoth’s Children’s class drew spooky Hallowe’en themes, with Jack-O-

Lanterns, haunted houses, witches, goblins, and more; the Adult drawing class focused on Hallowe’en pumpkins.

The City Manager and I reviewed the Library’s corrections undertaken in response to the Department of Labor’s findings for this facility.

Patty King met with Jennifer McIntosh, the managing editor of Boats, Homes, and Harbors regarding co-sponsoring a series of programs in 2016. They looked at putting together at least four programs, centering around a broad theme Experience Maine, or something similar. Speakers would all have been featured in MBHH magazine at some point. More details will be explored; Jennifer will be taking the ideas back to her supervisors for approval.

Jean Young hosted a new Book Club for fourth to eighth graders; the monthly meetings will include discussion of titles from the Maine Student Book Award list. Snacks were provided.

Jean Young reports a great visit from Steve Seekins and his therapy dog Leeloo, an Australian Shepherd, during Wednesday Storytime. This week’s group was all little boys, and they played a long time with Leeloo. Jean combined the craft with the reading; she read I Spy under the Sea, by Edward Gibbs and Beastly Babies, by Ellen Jackson. As they listened, the boys and their moms decorated foam pumpkins with magic marker faces and a sprinkling of Halloween glitter.

Jessie Blanchard and Keith presented a workshop at U Rock, for a Transitions to College class. This included in-depth searching techniques, database mining (sources unavailable through a Google search), other resources, and electronic citations. They received very positive feedback and were asked to return in March.

The Library was offered a wonderful gift of oil paintings, by spring-summer-fall resident Laura Waller. I visited her home and received the lovely works, which all feature local/nearby scenes. The six paintings are currently in my office, awaiting Council acceptance of the donation before we have them displayed.

I completed staff performance appraisals and interviews. This is a great opportunity for in-depth meetings, assessment, and outlining projects for the upcoming/current year.

The Thursday Evening Arts and Cultural Event was a Maine History Talk: Forever Young with historian Earle Shettleworth. Real photo postcards of a century ago provided an engaging visual record of childhood in Maine. This illustrated lecture showed children attending one-room schoolhouses, harvesting potatoes, and blueberries, working in factories, playing sports, and attending summer camps. Many postcards also depict multi-generational family groupings of children, parents, and grandparents with Maine farms and village streets in the background.

Staff agreed to a costume-light Friday, with a Dewey Decimal sign for their subject matter. For example, one of us dressed as a bat, and wore a sign marked 599.4; we also had plenty of candy to offer for visitors. 

Jean Young offered Baby Storytime on Friday.

Also, on Friday, Baby Play with Jess Day: Art, Music, Movement, Mindfulness Program (JAMMM). The program, for families with babies age birth to one, allows parents to learn about the power of music, movement, mindfulness, self and baby care. Resources for parents related to music, movement, parenting, wellness and mindfulness are provided. 

I traveled to Brunswick, to meet with Curtis Memorial Library Director Elisabeth Doucett, and her part-time development director, Joyce Schmitt, to get some ideas that might be useful in Rockland.

On Saturday Jean hosted a Halloween Hullabaloo!, which included Scary Stories with Erika Pfander, Costume parade with prizes, making a gory snack and creating Monster Puppets for an original Preposterous Puppet Show.

Upcoming: Kids’ Knitting for Beginners; Camden Conference Talk: Burundi and its Implications for African Politics.

OFFICE OF THE CITY ASSESSOR

Processed Real Estate Transfers, updating parcel cards, sales book, and 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. 

Updating GIS with the new splits and merging parcels. 

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

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE

Officers responded to 212 calls for service. Rockland Police Officers responded to 11 motor vehicle crashes and seven animal complaints. 31 traffic stops and traffic violations were conducted. 

Officers charged or made arrests of 21 individuals for various offenses, to include, Bail violations, Theft, Warrants of arrest, Probation Violations, Traffic offenses and Operating under the Influence.

ADMINISTRATION

DC Young attended a speaking engagement with two other officers at the Samoset Resort. The guest speaker was a former Deputy Commissioner of FDNY and was on scene during the 911 attacks. The focus of her presentation was communication during a crisis and to establish partnerships with non-public safety entities before a crisis/disaster hits because these entities can be a valuable resource during a crisis.

Conducted monthly building safety inspection. Corrected lighting situation in the garage bay and inspected fire extinguishers.

DC Young and I went to Brunswick Fire Dept. and met with Deputy Chief of Operations to discuss the implementation of a Safety Committee. Brunswick has a very successful program in place and will be a valuable resource moving forward.

Completed Department-wide METRO / Limited User Access Training. This is a biannual training for the agency.

C.I.D.

Both Det/Sgt. Thompson and Det. Neal are department firearms instructors. They have put their regular investigative assignments on hold unless an emergency situation should arise in order to prepare for and instruct annual firearms qualifications. This qualification will cover the night time pistol qualifications.. All members of the department will attend.

PATROL DIVISION

All members of the Patrol Division are completing annual firearms training.

Sgt. Camporiale has completed the 2016 OUI Grant Application and will be submitting it to the state.

Sgt. Camporiale continues to work on converting the MSDS sheets over to the SDS sheets in order to make sure the departments HAZCOM / Global Harmonization the program will be compliant by the 2016 deadline.

Radar details and directed patrols have been completed on Thomaston St. This data will be evaluated, and pertinent information will be distributed to the residence.

Officers continue to conduct school visits in order to interact with faculty and students.

OFFICE OF THE HARBORMASTER

We got the last of the Public Landing floats hauled out at Snow Marine Park. The only floats that are left and that still need to come out are the ones at the Snow Park launching ramp. Those will probably come out next week.

Hauled out the Harbormaster's boat, and we plan on getting it to the repair shop for work on the outboard's lower gear box.

Drained all of the water in the parks, and winterized the restrooms in the Harbormaster building. Still waiting for the water company to come and get their Meters. 

Raised the new, big Public Landing ramp and hooked it up for the winter. We'll see how the new system does through the coming season.

Met with a representative of the Rockland Yacht Club to discuss the process if they want to own and manage their own rental moorings. They are interested in trying to find a way to maximize the value of their launch service and earn some money. 

OFFICE OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY DIRECTOR

Pollution Control Facility

Average treatment plant flow was 2.1 MGD early this week it increased to 34 MGD during the CSO event caused by the rain Wednesday night.

The lab is preparing for the yearly testing of all pretreatment users; this will take several weeks.

Installation of new fence along the south and west side of the treatment plant has been completed by treatment plant operators.

Received and assembled a new shed for storage of the portable trailer generator.

Employee safety training on Lockout/Tag-out of equipment at the pump stations and the Hazard Communication Plan was done.

Completed rebuilding the #4 plant water pump.

Changed the oil and completed preventative maintenance on the #1 vortex underflow pump.

Replaced the belt tracking sensors and adjusted the filter belt alignment on the belt filter press #1.

Repaired the pump guide rails at the Thomaston St. pump station.

Removed and cleared a plugged pump at the Waldo Ave. pump station.

Environmental Technicians 

Met with the property owner at 45 Ocean St. to discuss options for connecting two basement sump pumps to the city’s stormwater system.

Began CCTV sewer main inspections on Grace, High, and Masonic streets. High street is completed and 300 ft. of Grace St. is done.

Worked with help from Dept. of Public Services to clean the sewer main on Franklin St. to prepare for inspection.

Entered recent pipeline inspection records into the G.I.S.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES DIRECTOR

Removed a downed tree on Broadway.

Working with Catherine Pease from the Career Center Aspire Volunteer program to provide volunteer opportunities at the Public Services Department.

Prepared for moving the pedestrian crosswalk and signal south to avoid future signal damage, while Main Street is closed Sunday night into Monday morning.

Responded to flooding and downed trees as a result of Wednesday’s rain and wind event.

Worked with the YMCA on an operating procedure agreement.

Provided Bloodborne Pathogen training and review of written plan to Public Services Employees.

David St Laurent attended MEMA mitigation/grant writing training in Augusta.

Worked with new Wastewater Environmental Compliance Manager John Alspaugh.

Cold Patched Thomaston Street and Fire Department driveway.

Three damaged park benches were removed, and new ones were installed.

Ongoing repair of the concrete spalling of sidewalk on Main Street is under way.

Bret Mank and Mark Porter attended additional transfer station training.

Chris Donlin, David Larabee, Todd Philbrook, and Dean Martin attended sander control training at HP Fairfield.

Chris Donlin attended plumbing inspection training.

Pulled out remaining floats at Snow Marine Park.

Continued working on the installation of the stormwater pipe in the Thorndike parking lot.

Reviewing with Joe Labranche the implementation of sanding and snow removal route changes.

Continued with street sweeping of downed leaves.

OFFICE OF THE MUNICIPAL FISH PIER DIRECTOR

The f/v Western Sea offloaded 450,000 lbs. of herring. 

The f/v Western Wave offloaded 170,000 lbs. of herring.

The herring season is over. 

The next couple of weeks will be used to clean up the pier and remove barrels, exactors, and pallets. 

The storm caused a couple of skiffs to be swamped. No damage was done to the pier or any other vessel docked.

The price per pound for lobster is still $4.20 a pound. 

OFFICE OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

John has been very busy reviewing and issuing permits, investigating complaints and doing numerous inspections. 

John and Asst. Director of Public Services, Chris Donlin attended a subsurface wastewater disposal training workshop in Hampden on 10/27/15.

The Code Office hosted the MidCoast Code Enforcement Officers Assoc. meeting in the Council Chambers on 10/28/15.

There was one complaint filed this week.

The following permits were received by the Code Office this week:

o 5 Building permits

o 2 Electrical permits

o 1 Plumbing permits

o 1 Sewer connection permit

o 1 Sign permit

o 1 Street Excavation permit

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER/COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Meeting with representatives of Midcoast Municipalities and Midcoast Economic 

Development District (MCEDD) to discuss the roll out of MCEDD’s Solarize Midcoast Maine program.

Discussions with Penquis on scheduling a forum in early December regarding housing needs in Knox County.

Preparation of Letter of Intent for business interested in applying for CDBG 

Economic Development Program Grant.

Working with Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership on finding or developing space for small-scale specialty food manufacturers (food business incubators).