Camden Town Manager Audra Caler-Bell has issued her bimonthly report, an aggregate of municipal business that includes a run-down of activity from Public Works, the fire and police departments, and an update on the new website development

Streetlight Acquisition and LED Conversion: The Town has submitted all paperwork to Central Maine Power required for formally acquiring ownership of all streetlights on public roads and in public parking lots.  Due to last week’s storm it’s likely CMP will be delayed in finalizing the acquisition agreement.  

The following is an estimate of the timeframes for completing the installation:

• The Investment Grade Audits (IGA) will be provided in the next 2 weeks (latest by November 8^th) for all the Municipalities;
• It will take 3-4 weeks, after Realterm provides the IGA, for each Municipality to finalize their approval process of the IGA.  This includes group decisions around smart controls, maintenance, etc. 
• It will take 8-10 weeks to get material onsite from the order based on the selection and options for Smart Controls
• The installer, Hedstrom Electric, is committing to start installation beginning of March 2020 (depending on weather conditions) and complete this work by end of April/beginning of May for all Municipalities.

Camden and the other towns involved in the conversion process (Rockport, Rockland, Thomaston, Union and Waldoboro) will be attending another joint meeting in early November to go over the results of the Industrial Grade Audit, discuss more specifics around the timeframes for the conversion and learn more about options for smart controls.

New Website Development: The sitemap and design for the new website have been finalized, which means content from the current website can start being migrated.  Now is a good point in time to gather input on features and content members of the public would like to see on the new website.  To this end, there will be a workshop on November 1 at 11 a.m. in the French Conference Room to gather public input.

EMS: The 4-Town EMS Performance Review Committee met on October 17.  A great deal of the meeting focused on a discussion about North East working with the Town of Camden on our Fire Department becoming a licensed first responder agency.  This will be discussed in more detail by the Camden Select Board at their meeting on November 6.  

The Fire Department first responding to the most critical medical emergencies has the potential to significantly improve the level of care ambulance patients receive.  However, their being a licensed first responder agency will result in increased costs for the Fire Department. 

For this reason the Select Board will be presented with a proposal and asked to make a decision on moving forward, or otherwise, with the Fire Department becoming a licensed first responder agency.

Federal Project Area Partial Deauthorization: The Town has submitted all required paper work to the offices of Senators Angus King and Susan Collins to move forward with the request to be included in the 2020 Water Resource Development Act (WRDA) to deauthorize a portion of the federal project area within Camden Harbor. 

At this stage we are waiting to find out if the Army Corps of Engineers will be able to complete all the reviews they need for making a recommendation to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.  If they are unable to do so it’s unlikely Camden’s deauthorization request will be included in the 2020 WRDA.

Public Works Department

• Continue work on road system management audit.
• Replaced culvert and sewer manhole structure on Rawson Ave.
• Patched potholes Town wide.
• Attended Seabright Dam table top exercise. 
• Met with Treatment Plant Superintendent Dave Bolstridge & Andrew Hedrich form Gartley & Dorsky to review future infrastructure and paving improvements on Mechanic street.
• Attended Pathways meeting.
• Provided cost estimate for the specified harbor walkway improvements to the Design Committee.
• Assisted the Harbormaster with the removal of the floats at the Public Landing as well as Steam Boat Landing. 
• Sent in the design for the storm door insert for the French Conference room to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and the Camden Historic Resources Committee for review.  The design was in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.  This weatherization improvement should be complete by the end of November. 
• The Maple St and Willow St. drainage improvements are complete.
• Completed the paving of the following Roads:
  • Marine Ave.
  • Norumbega St.
  • Rawson Ave.
  • Cobb Road from Mechanic to Cobb Hill Road.
  • Willow Street. 

Police Department

The following reflects statistics from Police Department files from October 1 to 25, 2019.  The statistics listed reflect a partial listing of the total number received. The complaints listed denote those which are used for reporting purposes or had a significant amount reported to the police during this period. 

• Jonathan Morgan has completed Phase 1-3 of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy pre-service training and is now a Full-Time Officer. Officer Morgan is currently in the Field training program.
• The Department will be holding an unwanted medication collection day at the Public Safety Building from 10 AM-2 PM on Saturday October 26^th.
• Officers took part in a joint semi-annual range qualification day with Rockport PD October 16^th.   
• We are preparing for the annual Trick or Treat event on Peral St. October 31^st. Pearl St and some surrounding side streets will be closed from 4:45 PM -8:00 PM. We urge everyone to drive careful in these areas as we expect upwards to a 1000 people taking part. Flashlights and fluorescent clothing are recommended. As always adults should check over the candy their Trick or Treaters come home with. 
• 456 Total complaints received during this period
•   13 Responses to 911 hang up / open line 
•   20 Agency Assist calls
•   13 Alarm responses
•     3  Animal complaints; 1 animal problems and 2 animal welfare 
•     1 Assault
•     4 Bail Condition Violations
•     3 Business/License checks
•     5 Citizen assist calls
•     2 Domestic
•   12 Drug Take Back (use of lobby drop box)
•     1 DUI
•     6  Erratic Vehicle 
•   11 Found property 
•   16 Information Complaints
•     5 Intoxicated Persons
•     1 Litter/Pollution/Public Health
•     1 Mental Health Issues
•     2 Nuisance
•     6 Parking problem
•   71 Property Checks
•     1 Suicide
•     8 Traffic accidents with damage  
•     3 Traffic Erratic Operation
•   41 Radar details
•     1 Sex Offenses
•     6 Suspicious Vehicles
•     8 Suspicious Persons/Circumstances
•     1 Theft
•   20 Traffic violations
•     2 Trespassing
•     2 Wanted Person on Warrant
•   27 Well Being checks

Parks & Recreation/Snow Bowl

• Chairlift rides were busy this fall.  We hit our revenue budget.  Looks like we will cancel this Sunday as they are calling for more rain and wind.  
• Early Bird season passes are on sale until October 31.  November 1 they go to regular prices.  
• Sunday, November 10, 2-4:30 p.m., Visitors can learn about the Ski and Ride School and meet instructors; meet the Freestyle, Masters and race coaching teams; register for winter programs, meet Ragged Mountain Ski Club organizers, learn about their Youth Scholarship Program and become a RMSC member. Visitors can also learn about and reserve season equipment lease packages; bring their race and freestyle equipment and have it checked before for the season and purchase a Camden Snow Bowl season pass and get their photo taken.
• Frisbee golf demo has 9 holes on the mountain and is free for anyone that wants to come out and give it a try.  

Fire Department:

• We continue to accompany CEO Steve Wilson on most of his inspections
• We have a weekly walk-through with the CEO and construction managers of the new CRMS building
• We conducted a Table Top Exercise of the Dam Emergency Action Plans for the Seabright and Megunticook Dams
  • Town Departments who play a role in the Emergency Action Plans participated in the exercise
• Followed up on Public Health concerns which trickle in about the Chestnut Street and Chestnut Hill areas
• We have met with several contractors in preparation for the public safety building HVAC RFP
• We attended the quarterly EMS Review Committee meeting
  • We have been discussing and reviewing implementing an EMS First Response plan
  • Implementing this program will affect personnel and budget
  • As we continue this discussion I recommend we meet with current full-time personnel to help answer their questions about how this will affect them
    • Questions are raised about financial/time commitment/retirement benefits, etc.
• For call-volume, we have experienced a fairly busy late summer/early fall
  • As an example of how the decline in the number of Firefighters is impacting Knox County, our mutual aid responses have increased
  • In September we sent a crew to Islesboro to assist them with a building fire
  • Last week we sent a crew to Saint George
  • Last week we responded to a building fire in Lincolnville and were the first crew to arrive on-scene
• Our training this month has focused on collaborative training with our mutual aid partners
  • Last night we trained in Rockport along with a crew from Hope
  • On Monday (10/28) we will be training at CHRHS with crews from Hope and Rockport
• In light of the propane incident in Farmington last month, we are advocating for the development of a county-wide response SOG for these types of incidents
  • We anticipate working on this in November with training for our personnel in December
  • We have talked with Representative Doudera about the development of a state-wide response SOG
• We lost two more part-time on-call Firefighters during October
  • Both of them moved out of town for job opportunities
• We are experiencing on a greater scale, the need to collaboratively and creatively work to provide public safety services to our communities