MANAGER’S  REPORT
For Council Meeting
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 

       TO:  MAYOR AND HONORABLE CITY COUNCILORS
FROM:  Joseph J. Slocum, City Manager
 DATE:  Friday, August 3, 2007 

11. B  Request by Waldo County YMCA Bluefish Swim Team to Host an Event at the Footbridge.  You have a request from Dee Bielenberg to allow them to conduct a swimming event in the Passagassawaukeag River on Saturday, September 15^th. (Blue)  We are currently asking each group who wants to use City facilities to fill out a copy of the attached Facilities Use Request Form and then we plan to have the City Departments meet with the Event Coordinators all at the same time so that they understand what is proposed, the level of impact it will have on their Departments and have the opportunity to offer to the Council their concerns or recommendations before Council is asked to give permission to the event coordinators. This will both focus and limit the planning and implementation process. While last weekends boat building challenge was certainly a success, it was not well coordinated with City Departments causing significant disruption of other planned work. We seek a clean and efficient way to clarify any request, understand what is truly being asked of the City and to present for your consideration in a timely and comprehensive manner. Presently we hope to have the representatives of the YMCA meet with the Departments on Monday at 11:00 am. If we have a complete picture of this event by that time then we will ask you to address this agenda item at your meeting on August 7^th.  If not we will ask you to hold it over until your meeting on the 21^st.    

11.C  Request by Easterly Wine, LLC to purchase the abutting Lot #8 in the Belfast Business Park. Easterly Wine LLC operates a wholesale wine distributorship out of the Belfast Business Park. When they purchased their existing lot #9 they also wanted to buy the adjacent lot #8 but were correctly advised that this lot was previously committed to another. When Eastern went to build their building on lot  #9 they ran into considerable difficulty laying out the building site as the topography and wet areas created significant limitations on the “usable portion of the lot”. After several layouts the building was constructed and again due to the tightness of the useable space tractor-trailer must back into the facility from the road at a very tough angle. Quite often it strikes the walls and new building in the process. The most immediate need of Eastern Wine is to reroute the driveway across the adjacent lot they now wish to purchase to eliminate this constant problem. Since opening their business has grown fourfold and they do see themselves needing to expand in the future but are not ready to commit to an expansion at this time. They presently occupy 3,200 and any addition of the building.  The State would not allow them to store wine at another location so growth needs to be accommodated at this site. They have grown from 2 employees to 5 with a seasonable driver and an office staff trainee. The Business Council met with Tammy Lacher Scully, co-owner at its meeting in July to discuss this request. Alan Hinsley from KRED was also present. The Council realized that lot #8 suffered from the same practical usable land limitations that lot #9, occupied by Eastern Wine has. Alan Hinsley reported that typical commercial; job-generating businesses are looking for developable space in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 sq. ft. This is far in excess of what either of these lots alone could accommodate. As the Business Development Council discuss this issue we realized these lots were sorted out in the early 80’s and were not really conductive to 2007 development market needs.  The Council recommended we sell this lot to Easterly Wine at this time with the view that this will inevitably benefit the park and the local economy through either growth or expansion of Easterly Wine or through any business that could follow them at this site in the future. The best economic opportunity would be for these two lots to be joined as one.  Sale price would be $25,000. (Green) 

11.D  Request for Directional Signage for “shopping areas” and “ Districts” within the Route 3 right of way and other State Roads. You have a memo dated August 2, 2007 from Wayne Marshall discussing these possibilities. I think we could pay for the City’s share of the cost of these signs from the Miscellaneous promotions line 650-596. We would of course attempt to use in house labor and equipment to keep cash dollars spent to a minimum. (Pink) 

11.E  Council Discussion on Draft Amendments to the Comprehensive Plan on Larger Retail Development.  Given the late evening discussions with the Council and the Planning Board on Wednesday, Wayne Marshall is working to get these to you by Monday. The purpose of this agenda item is to report to the Council on this “Draft” of proposed amendments and offer the Council an opportunity to ask questions or to discuss the amendments. No formal action is being asked for at this time.  

11.F  Discussion and Action on Nominating a City Councilor to serve on the Waldo County Budget Committee.  We need to nominate a representative so that we can eventually appoint a representative. The State law that was adopted to set up this committee limits membership to one person from each municipality. When the Belfast City Council votes to appoint a member the Councils vote is weighted to reflect its population strength. However, once the Committee is formed, limiting Belfast to one member – the Belfast Representative has the same input as the Frankfort Representative.  There is no language giving the actual committee weighted votes as far as I can see.   I am asking MMA if there is a legal impediment against weighted voting on a committee such as this. Since Belfast has the highest proportionate share of the County budget I am asking if we can have the highest proportionate say on this County Budget Committee. (Tan) 

11.G  Discussion and Action on Voting for MMA Executive Committee Ballot.  The Maine Municipal Association is run by elected Officers and Executive Committee members. The Executive Committee appoints a 5 member Nominating Committee who reviews applications and then makes recommendations on candidates to the municipalities to vote on. This year the Nominating Committee nominated only one person for each open position. There are no real contests even though I know for fact that there were more people interested in serving on these committees. Belfast can either vote for the recommended people, some of the recommended people or none of the recommended people. I suggest the City vote for these recommendations as I know many of them and feel they are competent. However, I also feel the City should ask the Executive Committee to encourage the Nominating Committee to offer a sufficient numbers of interested candidates in the future so that Municipalities are empowered to make a choice. (Gray)