Included with this report is the first quarter financial report. Some highlights for the Board’s information are: 

 

• Overall expenditures are at 21.49% expended (as compared 


 

• Overall revenues are at 19.95% collected 


 

• Excise tax collections are at approximately $275,000, or about 34% collected for the FY21 
budgeted amount 


 

• State Municipal Revenue Sharing collections are at approximately $78,000, or 36% of the 
budgeted amount 


 

• Revenues are down for the Harbor (16.8% collected) and Opera House (0.3%) because of the 
pandemic


 

Overall, the Town is in good financial shape for the first quarter of the fiscal year. 


 

 

I have been communicating with the MDOT regional bridge manager about the non-functioning streetlight on the Pascal Avenue bridge. The most recent information that I have is that the light pole needs to be replaced and an electrician is also reviewing the issue. 


 

The Town was awarded a safety grant in the amount of $687.01 to cover two-thirds of the cost for purchasing four traffic control sign paddles for the Fire Department. Thanks to Executive Assistant Diane Hamilton and Fire Chief Jason Peasley for pursuing this grant. 


 

The Town budgeted for an upgrade to its website during this fiscal year. Executive Assistant Diane Hamilton has been working with GovOffice on this project. Several other municipal website designs were presented to the Town by GovOffice to choose a layout. 

 

Customized titles, colors and 130 pictures were sent to govoffice to begin the design process. Last week we received a draft of the design to view to make sure fonts, colors, layout, and pictures were the way we wanted to proceed forward onto the next step. 


 

Currently GovOffice is finishing up the design process on the home page. The next step is the approval of the interior page, which is used to add additional photos to pages and to showcase the content and show some visual interest to each page. Then the approval of the final design will be accomplished. The new website will then be in an “edit/test” mode so we can add additional information to each tab/section to enter our own content. 

 

Govoffice has been very good to work with, very accommodating to our wants and needs. The goal is for the new website to be user friendly to our residents and guests and easy to navigate as well as mobile friendly meaning that it will resize itself depending on what device type of device is accessing the site (i.e. phone, computer, tablet). 

 

Once the new website design is complete, a banner at the top of the page will say “Welcome! - Our new website is a work in progress, thank you for your patience” until everything is updated by Town staff. We hope to have it completed in November. 

 

 

The main level of the new library is substantially complete. There are some glass doors that still need to be installed as well as a railing. 

 

Phi expects to be fully complete on the main level by October 16th. Approximately 80% of the books have been moved from the temporary library and installed in the new library and 50% of the furniture is in as well. The Town greatly appreciates Phi’s willingness to work around the furniture installation and movers. We know it was not easy. The end caps and panels for the bookshelves will be installed the week of October 19. 

 

The lower level is progressing nicely and should be substantially complete by third week of October. Lower level furniture arrives in two weeks or so. 

 

The Town and contractor are still waiting for permanent power to be installed from CMP. CMP has been delayed because of outages throughout the state due to windstorms. Phi needs three to four weeks to finish and test systems after permanent power is installed. 

 

The intersection work and Limerock Street work continue. The concrete pathways in Memorial Park were placed the week of October 5th and the grading and curbs were also completed. The week of October 12th will see excavation in front of the building by Russell Avenue, installing curbs, and sidewalk thereafter. Paving is expected to be completed by the end of October. 

 

Backfill around the building will start soon and the landscaping contractor can begin October 19th. Four trees for Memorial Park were planted by Friday, October 9th. These trees were purchased from a generous donation received by the Town previously. 

 

 

Previous camera work was completed in 2014 when 1.1 miles of pipe were inspected and in 2016 when 2.3 miles of pipe were inspected. Camera work will begin soon, and we have enough funds to inspect approximately 2 miles of pipe. This will bring the total to 5.4 miles of pipe that will have been inspected. The entire system contains 17 miles of pipe. 

 

Finance Director Megan Brackett has still been working through some wastewater issues with users of the system and strongly believes this was not a billing issue. She has spoken to several customers that have had plumbers come out and discover leaking toilets and in some cases that was the equivalent of leaving a faucet running all day. 

 

There have been many cases that residents felt they watered outside more then what they have in the past, and we have had several people put meters on their outside spigots.

 

Some residents already had meters and those residents saw their bills reduce by 75% or more once they called in the meter reading to Maine Water.

 

This truly has turned into a case by case issue and working with the sewer users to determine based on individual circumstances. The people that saw large bills in July, will be receiving their next quarterly bill in October, and Megan has several residents that she will follow up with once they receive that bill.