Assessing: As we all know the commitment was completed and the Tax bills all went out. Kerry and Caitlin worked very hard getting this out a week earlier than normal.

While the Town of Rockport did experience about $4 million in new growth, we still experienced a 9.2 percent increase in the mil rate, largely due to a substantial increase in the school portion of the tax bill, as well as loss of revenues due to changes made by the legislature in the BETE and BETR programs. The Town’s expenses increased just 2.86 percent while the cost of therecently voted approved middle school created a 11.27 percent increase in the MSAD 28 budget, which pushed the mil rate up substantially.

Fire Department

The fire department has had a very busy few weeks. They are 34 calls ahead of the same point last year at 149 calls thus far this year. Due to the sale of the building where the old ladder truck was being stored, it had to be moved back to the fire station. They are currently looking for new inside storage space to keep it.

Finance

Megan is gathering updated information for the CIP program for review by the CIP Committee and she will be attending the GFOA conference this month.

Harbor

The Harbor Committee will be considering the variance request submitted by Ken Dodge for his fishing boat, which is too big for his mooring, under the ordinance. A recently approved ordinance change creates a variance process to allow him to get a variance from the Town for him to be out of compliance. Once the Harbor committee has had an opportunity to make a recommendation, it will come to the Select Board for consideration.

We have seen an uptick in overnight rentals at the Harbor, so our revenue stream will be increasing this year. We have had several big boats come into the harbor recently, one was here for several weeks.

The fisherman’s dock is being improved as it was becoming too slippery, so an existing ramp is being retrofitted to make it less likely to cause an accident.

There was an issue with a new permit for a dock that was mistakenly approved by the Planning Board before being presented to the Harbor Committee. Abbie is working on a solution to keep it from happening again.

The foot bridge has been sealed as well as the stairs headed up to Cramer park.

Police

Car 70 has been out of service getting a new radiator installed.

Now that schools are back in session our officers have been assigned to daily traffic enforcement details in the school zones, and in the areas where school commuter traffic is heaviest. Officers will do these details morning and afternoon unless they are busy with other police matters.

We are doing directed patrols in other areas of Town based on need.

Police Chief Randy Gagne has also contacted DOT and is awaiting a return call to see if the Police Department can get involved with the Dynamic Speed Sign Program. Hopefully we can receive a speed board from MDOT with the agreement that we attend a one-day training and agree to move the board around to different locations. I will have more info in the future on this program.

Public Works

Winter sand has all been delivered and is in the shed waiting for that first snow storm. Hopefully it will wait until mid-December.

They are working on getting all the trucks ready for winter as well. The Oshkosh is being worked on now and the new frame is in. Mike is hoping to get back up to look at it and check the progress in the next couple of weeks.

The washouts in the Cemetery have been repaired and several of the granite posts have been reset.

They continue to work on ditching around Town and will begin resetting culverts at the Glen Cove subdivision soon, as the association there has created better drainage to make the work we do more effective.

Mike is also working on the flashing speed limit signs that can be moved around Town to getdriver’s attention and get them to slow down.

The “Report It/ Fix It” application for the website is nearly complete and we are expecting it to be available soon. They are just polishing it up a bit and making it ready to use.

The paving bids are coming in now and paving will begin in the next few weeks. We have had paving repairs being done all around town, and all the culverts were installed on Forest Glen to improve drainage there.

The Public Works crew has been working for the past week or so cutting brush at Marine Park and thinning out the trees.

They have completed the new sidewalk and ADA compliant rampways around the Post Office that meet with DOT approval.

The repairs to the Lime Kiln have been made and look better than we ever hoped. We were expecting it to simply made safe, but Mark Stambaugh of Stambaugh Masonry did a great job after a few years of weathering you will not notice the repair.

Town Clerk

The staff in the Town Clerk’s office have all received training on online car registrations, which will be implemented by September 15.

With tax bills going out, the Town Clerk’s office has been very busy this past week, as people arecoming in to get their taxes paid.

46 personal property reminder letters have been sent out.

Linda has been busy setting up training as part of the wellness program that has gotten re-energized by the Safety Committee.

Town Office

The specifications for the generator for the Town Office are finally near completion and we expect the bids documents to be sent out next week.

We received a $5,212.00 dividend check from MMA as a result of our much-improved loss prevention experience we are seeing due to our monthly safety training.

Other

The Library Design Committee has been busy over the past couple of months working with theowner’s representative on revising the plan to meet the proposed budget of $3.5 million. They have identified several areas of savings for the Library project. We have three estimates for pricing all within $100,000 of each other and the owner’s rep. is working on his own estimate thatwill include the savings that he has found. Ultimately this will not reduce the total expected cost but will give us enough of a buffer to absorb unanticipated costs.

Over the past three weeks, I have been able to get in 8 vacation days, which is very appreciated.

I will be away at the ICMA conference and the MMA Strategic Planning session from September 20 – 26.