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MANAGER’S REPORT TO:
MAYOR & HONORABLE CITY COUNCILORS Non-Agenda Items: 1. New State Requirements for Airport Managers. The State has imposed new regulations (Chapter 76 Public Laws of 2007) upon all Airports- including municipally operated Airports, which require me as the Belfast Airport Manager to take some training and exams. This will mean that Belfast will lose my services for about 3 days. Bill Ryan, the Chair of the Airport Advisory Committee may also take this training as may Sandy Reynolds the City’s FBO. The Belfast Municipal Airport is a highly significant yet often underappreciated City asset. -It is a major attraction for economic development. Businesses need air transport. -It increases tourism to serve our service economy. -It offers an excellent Life flight location to serve our emergency needs -It draws boating and aviation enthusiast. People fly in to see how their new boat is coming along at Belfast Boatyards. There are people seeking to find both a home for their plane as well as their boat. -It is a highly valued regional recreational aviation opportunity shared by local aviation enthusiast, tourists and those seeking to hire private charters. It will be interesting to see how much further regulation the State has in mind. 2. City arrangements with Maine Scenic Airways Inc. Maine Scenic Airways Inc. by contract is the Fixed Based Operator at the Belfast Airport. They have a long-term lease and they provide a host of aviation services. There are times when we may need something done at the Airport where it would benefit the City to have someone like Sandy Reynolds – who owns Maine Scenic Airways Inc. - take care of the matter for the City. The one stumbling block to having this need fulfilled would be liability. The City and its employees are protected from unlimited legal exposure by the Maine Tort Claims Act. Sandy as a private individual or a private businessperson is not. I propose that we either make him a part-time employee or appoint him to an Employment Position and pay him a small stipend as we do with the City’s Emergency Management Director. The alternatives would be excessively expensive. Agenda Items: 11. B Discussion and Action on a request y the Public Works Director to waive the bid process and purchase a snow blower attachment for the trackless sidewalk machine. The City has procurement policy, which requires equipment purchases costing more than $4,000 go to competitive bid. Presently we need to buy a snow blower attachment to our trackless sidewalk machine and there is only one source for this product in New England. Bidding then has become impossible and we must buy from that single source. Bob Richards, Director of Public Works has written an attached memo, which identifies the sole source, the budget line from which it will be paid from and the $8,300 purchase price. I recommend that Council waive the competitive bidding requirement on this specific purchase. (Tan) 11. C Discussion and Action on an agreement with Verizon and Central Maine Power for future permission to attach anything to their utility poles. (Pink) At a recent meeting the Mayor handed me several copies of proposal agreement between the City and Verizon and CMP that will control all City access to their utility poles. These are not negotiated agreements. Presently over 100 municipalities in the State have such agreements. In order for the City to attach anything to utility poles in the City of Belfast we must first submit a form explaining what we propose to put up. This will be followed up by the Utility with a “field survey” to make sure the Utility understands the request and if the utility provides written permission then the “attachment must conform to the Manual for Construction procedures and the National Electrical Code, the Natural Electric Safety Code etc. This means that the City will have to retain the services of an electrician to make sure our attachments meet these codes every time we seek to access utility poles. Christmas lights included. Yes, this is more paperwork and expense than we experienced in the past but I can appreciate the utilities are trying to insulate themselves from legal liability arising out of these local practices. Verizon and CMP require us to carry certain levels of insurance and that issue has been referred to our insurance broker for assessment. I will update you on this aspect of the agreement at the meeting. This is a good example of how the legal world around us changes the way and the cost of doing what we have always done. 11. D Discussion of follow-up topics from the Belfast Leadership and Action Summit. (Green) Request that City Council approves a series of studies, including the November 2006 Belfast Vibrancy Report, collectively encouraged the Mayor to call for Leadership and Action Summit last winter. At one of the Summit meetings a Belfast resident stood up and asked whether anything that was being publicly discussed at those meetings would be followed up on. He recited a number of prior meetings where good ideas never left the paper they were written down on. Recently the Mayor asked a group of Business, Non-Profits, Arts, Chamber of Commerce and City representatives to get together and to attempt to carve up responsibility for looking further into the top 10 issues raised as priority “initiatives / goals”. The meeting was facilitated by Alan Hinsey, Director of the Knox Waldo Regional Economic Development Council (KWRED). That list is as follows: Tier 1- Must Address-significant level of focus & support-very high community value placed on these concepts/projects. 1. Maintain friendly, real, working waterfront; 2. Multi-use Community Performing Arts/Conference Center; Tier 2-Important near term projects-broad range of Community support- Community sees these as important (now) for economic success of Belfast. 3. Comprehensive/Coordinated Marketing Plan for Belfast; 4. Unification of Eastside/Westside-for strong sustainable tourism strategy (walking venues, footbridge, bike paths, etc); 5. Encourage Commercial Development-housing, affordable housing, retail; Tier 3-Important for long-term sustainability of Belfast Economy 6. Develop a business incubator for Belfast; 7. Promote technological infrastructure enhancements for Belfast; 8. Raise educational aspirations- at all levels- through out Belfast; 9. Develop and promote a festival plan for Belfast centered around Arts and Culture); 10. Strengthen the Chamber of Commerce- including unified/coordinated marketing with various groups in Belfast. I am attaching to this report a 9 page outline detailing of how (the Who, What and When) this group proposed that these various issues be pursued. Alan Hinsey typed them up and suggested they be presented to the City Council for approval. Please note that the “follow up group” felt that these 10 areas had some overlap and they have suggested that a new 11th issue be added which calls for a Plan to improve walking, bicycling and other pedestrian amenities for the entire City. I sat through these follow up meetings and sympathize with the resident who originally asked would all of this go somewhere. I also note that a 1982 City Blue Ribbon Commission called for the creation of a Performing Arts and Conference Center. I also wish to point out that the City’s Comprehensive Planning effort should not be overlooked here as well. Every issue raised as a priority in the Action Summit is either covered and may need updating or addresses an issue that should absolutely be included in the Comprehensive Plan. Based upon some recent conversations it is my understanding that the present Comprehensive Planning Committee will strive to update all aspects of the land use or Zoning laws during the next year. This means that issues discussed over the last 4 years will be updated and proposed by the Comprehensive Planning Commission for incorporation into our land use ordinances. This is a broader set of reviews that has been recently focused upon the big box issue. Once that land use piece is updated by formal recommendation to the Council then it would be my hope that the Comprehensive Planning Commission will take up the discussion, coordination and follow up on many of the same matters being suggested for follow up arising out of the Action Summit. I recommend that the City move now to pursue the issues raised in the Action Summit so that we do not lose any ground on any of them. This means they will be investigated further, pursued and reported on back to the City Council. I also recommend that when the Comprehensive Planning Committee finishes with updating the Land Use portion of the Comprehensive Plan that at that time the efforts of the various groups on these 11 initiatives and goals merge with the Comprehensive Planning Committee to produce one Comprehensive Planning effort for the entire City. In the end we want one Plan for Belfast. This is a fairly big set of issues. Many of them are already being worked on every day. Presently the question is whether the Council will endorse as written these strategies for follow up, amend them, not endorse them etc. The goal of these 11 issues was to identify who was going to follow up on the issue, have them define the issue as they understand it and propose timelines by which they hope the matter can be addressed, implemented or accomplished matched to a specific plan. Some issues- such as a working waterfront will be ongoing indefinitely but the group can still identify strategies on how to maintain this goal overtime and identify those with its charge. I am glad to discuss this further at the meeting. 11. E Discussion and Action of a financial plan, which includes a method to re-coop the related costs, in order to meet State requirements to bury electrical conduit at the existing airport hangars. Here are some Airport Hangar Electric Issues to be resolved: (Blue) There are 16 hangars in the old section- eight on each side. Several of these owners paid several thousand dollars to run an underground line to an electrical junction box to service these hangars. First we need a mechanism by which this private investment is fairly and reasonably shared by all 16-hangar owners. Not all of these owners has electricity today but I anticipate that each will eventually desire electrical service. There should be a lease requirement against the use of generators. About 6 of the16 present hangar owners have hooked up to electricity. Most of them have modern electric front doors that open. The older ones are wooden and have sliding panels that are in moderate to poor shape. For several years we have permitted these hangars to run electric lines, sealed inside plastic tubes, to run along the ground where the backs of these buildings meet. The State has now determined that all of these lines must be buried in concrete. If the 6 tubes for the 6 current electric users are buried without making provision for the other 12 hangars- then when any one of the other hangar owners wants to add electricity then the cost to that individual hangar owner will be prohibitive. The best thing to do is to lay the empty tubing now for the other 12 hangars and then seal all the tubes in concrete at one time. When a hangar owner then wants to add electricity they will run a line through the empty tube that runs to their hangar. To resolve these two financial needs the City should step forward and the hangar owners should all cooperate. I propose the following: 1. The City as property owner and landlord will accept full title and ownership of the privately run underground electric line. The City owns the airport and it should own underground infrastructure so that it can control any digging on the property. 2. The City should pay for the cost of running 12 sets of plastic pipe and also the cost of covering the entire plastic pipe with concrete at an estimated cost of $4,000. 3. The City should bill all hangar owners who have conduit to their hangar whether they currently run an electric line to it or not at a proportionate share of this cost. 4. If any hangar owner who does not currently use electricity refuses to pay their proportionate share of the cost at this time then their share of the cost will grow with interest over time and they will additionally have to pay a handling fee of $25 per year to compensate the City for its expense in keeping this account open and managed. 5. In exchange for the transfer of the under ground private electric lines the City will attempt to secure proportionate reimbursement for the initial cost of that electric installation without interest as individual hangar owners seek to access it to electrify their hangars. 11.F Council consideration of revised first reading language for amendments to City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 102, Zoning, Article IX, Performance Standards, Division 3, Nonresidential Development Standards-Route 3 Commercial. Wayne has a packet for your consideration. (Gray) Closing Note: I just wanted to say thanks to each of you for working so hard to stay on top of things during the distracting process of elections. There are few who so closely see that you do not ever let the City’s best interest fade or your responsibility wane. I can attest that you have kept me on my toes every day and our taxpayers and citizens deserve to know that. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend. |
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