Over the past few weeks my focus has been on completing the FY19 Budget. The manager's draft of the budget has been finalized and budget books are available for collection by members of the Budget Committee, the Select Board and staff. Our goal is to upload a copy of the FY19 budget to the Town website by the end of today, March 5.

The staff did a fantastic job of helping me deliver a realistic budget that maintains our current services, allows us to move forward a number of capital projects and enables the organization to better plan for the future in regards to personnel. It's encouraging we were able to achieve all this with a 0 percent increase over last year.

Along with Select Board members Marc Ratner and John French I attended a meeting of the EMS Review Committee on Feb. 28. The Committee agreed to the idea of developing a performance based contract with Northeast Ambulance Services. Once the contract is developed and the performance indicators are agreed upon we'll have a better idea of the bottom line cost for the four towns.

I'm happy to confirm that Jeremy Martin will be beginning with the Town as the Planning and Development Director on March 19. After the announcement that Jeremy had been hired for this position there was quite a bit of discussion around this role as well as the CEO/Planner position and the history around both roles. To give everyone an idea of how the planning, development and codes department will be organized moving forward I have the org chart (see graphic).

These changes are a result of the Career Firefighter's becoming certified as Code Enforcement Officers, removing the Community Development Director Position and creating a Planning & Development Director.

Prior to this year, the Code Enforcement/Planning and Community Development were separate small departments with little integration or coordination of projects or responsibilities.

They have been combined into one separtment under the Planning and Development Director, who in addition to overseeing and managing the department's staff, will also be responsible for all planning and community and economic development activities.

Fire Department

Incident response call volume has remained steady
Continuing review of Code Enforcement educational materials
We learned that we have successfully completed the Shoreland Zoning test
The four career personnel have now completed the state required training programs to be certified CEOs
Met with the CEO, architect and contractors about various projects
Researched Code requirements for the project with the Fire Marshal's Office
Conducted several Department training sessions
Several Firefighters attended a training program at Hope Fire
Mary Hauprich, our safety officer completed a Health & Safety Officer training program at the Bureau of Labor Standards
Several Hope Firefighters attended our walk-through at the Anderson Inn with CFD Firefighters
Continued apparatus & equipment maintenance programs
Hosted the first night of the Citizens Public Safety Academy
Several Firefighters assisted with the presentations
Followed up on an abandoned property complaint with the town attorney
Attended a meeting of the EMS review committee
Researched best practices in ambulance service contract agreements and obtained several contracts for comparison
Chief attended a meeting of the Knox County Enhanced Mutual Aid group
Chief attended a meeting of the KRCC Executive Board
Chief participated in a supervisors promotional board for KRCC staff
FF Heath met with LifeFlight of Maine staff to assist in safety planning for the Islesboro Crossing fundraiser
Conducted 6 month performance evaluations for FFs Beveridge & Heath
As Public Health Officer, investigated an air quality complaint at Highland Park
As Public Health Officer, followed up on a complaint of rodents on Chestnut Hill with the town attorney
FF Heath attended a meeting of the Knox County Emergency Management Directors

Police Department

In an effort to improve safety in our schools the Camden Police Department will do the following to increase the department's presence in the schools:

1. Officers will conduct morning/afternoon traffic details in the school areas. The department already does this for the most part but will commit to being there every day.

2. Officers will conduct multiple exterior checks of the campuses during the day and document what times the checks were completed. These are drive-by checks of the buildings exteriors and parking lots.

3. At least once a day the duty officer will make a physical visit to the administrative offices of each school and check in with staff to see if there are any issues that need to be addressed.

4. Be very visible in our school areas!