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HomeMy WebLinkAboutManagerNewsletter20140620This Newsletter is formatted for use on all browsers.View this email in your browser From the Desk ofTown ManagerLibby Gibson June 20, 2014 Volume 5, Number 3 Town of Nantucket 16 Broad StreetNantucket, MA 02554 P: (508) 228-7255F: (508) 228-7272 Contact Us! Town of NantucketWebsite Newsletter Archives Town Administration News and Updates Energy Office Several months ago, the Town applied for a grant through the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources for a full-time energy coordinator. Along with several other municipalities, we were awarded a $50,000 grant for Fiscal Year 2015 for this position. We are planning to fill the position with Lauren Sinatra, who has been serving as our Energy Coordinator for the past two years, with financial assistance from ReMain. Lauren already has an ambitious work plan underway. Lauren and our other energy consultant (also funded with financial assistance from ReMain) George Aronson gave the Board of Selectmen a quarterly report on energy issues at the Board’s May 21st meeting. Assistant Town Manager Gregg Tivnan and I, along with Lauren, attended an Energy Awareness luncheon sponsored by National Grid on May 12th. The presentation related to efforts and programs Nantucket businesses, residents, organizations and the Town can do to help delay the need for a 3rd electric cable to the island. There are a lot of things we can all do and it is in all of our best interests to delay this 3rd cable for as long as possible. Nantucket – Greenwich Connection There is certainly more than one Nantucket-Greenwich, CT connection but on June 16th, I was visited by David Thompson, Greenwich’s Director of Public Works. Nantucket’s DPW Director Kara Buzanoski joined us and we had an interesting discussion about various issues including potholes, intersection improvements, and composting. Thank you for stopping in, David! Kara Buzanoski, Libby Gibson and David Thompson Projects/Reports Wage and Classification Study Several months ago, we initiated a compensation and classification study for Town employee positions. Many towns conduct such studies every 5 years or so. We haven’t done one in approximately 20 years, so, it was time. The consultant (DIJ Consulting – Don Jacobs) revised position descriptions and developed a recommended consistent classification system (which will ultimately have to be bargained with the affected unions). He also conducted a comparative review of Nantucket employee compensation with other municipalities. Mr. Jacobs gave the Board of Selectmen a presentation at the Board’s June 11 workshop meeting. There is quite a bit of follow-up work to done to “roll out” the study, in light of collective bargaining issues and obligations. We will be working on this over the next month or so. Airport/FAA Inspection The Airport recently underwent a very detailed inspection by the FAA – I asked Airport Manager Tom Rafter to explain the process and what happened, here is what he reported: Recently the Nantucket Memorial Airport underwent a three day inspection performed by the Federal Aviation Administration. This annual inspection, known as the Part 139 Certification Inspection, is part of a rigorous requirement that the airport must comply with in order to be able to serve aircraft with more than nine seats. The eight basic phases of the inspection include: pre-inspection review, in-briefing, administrative inspection of records, movement area inspection, aircraft rescue and firefighting inspection, fuel facilities inspection, night inspection and post inspection briefing. Airports meeting Part 139 standards are issued an operating certificate which serves to ensure safety in air transportation. To obtain a certificate, the airport must agree to certain operational and safety standards. The inspection takes about three days to complete including a thorough night inspection of every runway, taxiway and navigational aid light on the airport. To give an idea of how detailed the inspection is, pavement condition is inspected for many things including holes, which by regulation cannot be deeper than 3”, have a diameter greater than 5” and a slope 45 degrees or greater from any point in the hole to the nearest point of the lip of the hole. Additionally when inspecting the pavement the edges must not exceed a 3” difference in elevation between the pavement and the abutting areas. These requirements are established to ensure that pavement conditions do not have a negative impact on directional control of aircraft while operating in the airfield environment. As part of the operational portion of the inspection, airport firefighting personnel must respond in full gear to an unannounced emergency and dispense water or agent as required by the inspector within three minutes to the midpoint of the farthest runway. The inspection went very well with exemplary performance from our entire staff. Thank you Tom and thanks to you and your staff for your hard work! Late breaking update: Tom informed me just before this newsletter went to print that the Airport received a zero deficiency report. Zero deficiencies is a significant accomplishment and such reports are rarely issued, so again, great work Airport staff, thank you!" Personnel The Town’s new Director of Municipal Finance, Brian E. Turbitt, started work on Monday, June 16, 2014. We are pleased and excited to begin working with him. After the Town’s former Finance Director departed last winter, the Town engaged a consulting firm, The Executive Suite, based in Hyannis to conduct a search. A group comprised of 2 Selectmen, 2 members of the Finance Committee, the Human Resources Director, the interim Finance Director (Deborah Dilworth), the Assistant Town Manager and myself conducted interviews with 4 thoroughly vetted candidates. One candidate ended up withdrawing her application and while all the candidates had impressive qualifications and enthusiasm, at the end of the process we all felt that Brian was the most suited for this job. Thank you to all of the Finance Department staff for pitching in and getting things done during this interim period of time and especially Deborah Dilworth for her guidance and leadership as interim Director. We sincerely appreciate your help. Of Interest NRTA Fast Ferry Connector! Last month, the NRTA began a new direct shuttle service to the fast ferries from a Park & Ride lot at the Town’s 2 Fairgrounds Road property. The service is free and a schedule may be found at www.nrtawave.com. For this year, the following groups contributed to the service: Steamship Authority, Hy-line, Nantucket Hotel, Nantucket Island Resorts, Stop & Shop, Nantucket Bank, ReMain Nantucket, the Town of Nantucket. Thanks and appreciation go to all of the contributors and especially to Mark Snider, of the Nantucket Hotel who volunteered his time to help coordinate funding and ideas; and, Paula Leary, NRTA Administrator who made it happen. Intersection Etiquette As we all know, certain intersections around the island get interesting – particularly in the summer – when vehicles converge at all the stops of an intersection, at once. I asked Chief of Police Bill Pittman what the official rules are on this and he provided the following: An intersection such as “Five Corners” that has multiple streets entering it and a Stop sign on each street is known as an all-way stop intersection. A motorist approaching an all- way stop is always required to come to a full stop before the crosswalk or stop line. Pedestrians always have the right of way at a crosswalk, even if the crosswalk is not marked with pavement markings. After a full stop has been made, vehicles have the right-of-way to proceed through the intersection in the order that they arrived at the intersection. If vehicles arrived at approximately the same time, each driver must yield to the drivers on their right. There you go, thank you Chief! Also, helpful hint: use your blinker. It’s there for a reason…. Social Media Update Earlier this month, the Police Department expanded its use of social media to assist with locating owners of the many “Lost and Found” items that accumulate at the Police Station. Within one hour of the Pinterest launch, a local resident was reunited with her bike! Officer Brandon Whiting and Linda Humphries 2014 Statewide Arson Watch Poster Contest – Nantucket County Winners! Fire Captain Elizabeth Shannon, along with the 2014 Nantucket County Poster Contest winners were congratulated at the June 4th Board of Selectmen’s meeting. Captain Shannon provided this description of the Contest: Celebrating its 32st year, this Fire Safety Poster Contest is open to all public and private school students in grades 6-8 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Poster Contest is sponsored by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association. Over 1,300 students participated statewide including 38 students from Nantucket. The 2014 Arson Watch Reward Poster Contest winners are Marin Hood and Sawyer Phillips. Marin, this year’s 1st place winner is a 7th grade student and is in Melissa MacVicar’s homeroom at the Cyrus Peirce Middle School. Sawyer, this year’s 2nd place winner is also in 7th grade and is in Irene Egan’s homeroom class at the Cyrus Peirce Middle School. Last year Sawyer was the 1st Place Nantucket County Winner and the 3rd place winner in the State. Both students receive monetary awards and plaques acknowledging their accomplishments. Marin, her family, and Mrs. MacVicar travelled with Fire Prevention Officer Liz Shannon to the Arson Watch Rewards Luncheon in May to receive Marin’s award. Both students’ artwork will be used for the 2015 Arson Watch Poster Calendar which is distributed to all middle school students in the Commonwealth. All first place county winners have their artwork displayed at the State House during Fire Prevention Week in October. Congratulations Marin and Sawyer! Sawyer Phillips, Captain Shannon and Marin Hood 1st Place Winner Marin Hood's Poster 2nd Place Winner Sawyer Phillips' Poster Plover Watch! Recently, we put up a “Plover Watch” feature on the Town’s website home page. It gives an update of each Town beach area that has had to be restricted due to nesting endangered shore birds. If you are planning to drive to or onto a beach, please check this out first. Children’s Beach – New Concession The Town rents out three restaurant/snack bar concessions: Jetties Beach, Surfside Beach and Children’s Beach. Marshall Thompson has been operating the Jetties concession and the Surfside snack bar for several years and does a great job. We have a new concessionaire running the Children’s Beach concession, Bart Gangemi. Bart owns other island businesses as well. I asked him to provide me a little background about himself and what he hopes for, for his newest venture: My business philosophy is simply to provide quality family food at reasonable prices in a clean and friendly environment. We hope to build breakfast back up (where else can you get an affordable breakfast on the beach!), serve families and build a reputation for quality seafood. I am also a commercial scalloper so I saw Children’s Beach every morning launching the boat and I knew all it needed was some TLC and elbow grease and it could be what it should be, an adorable little beach spot. Nantucket has been good to me and I knew we could do a nice job making the place respectable (don’t get me wrong I hope to make some money there but a lot of it was civic pride). I washed ashore here 27 years ago dropping out of the corporate rat race at an offer to run Cap’n Tobey’s for Bob Leske. I have a BS in hotel and restaurant management, worked for many large corporations and got my first opportunity here on Nantucket while dumping trash from the Rose & Crown and talking to the guy who opened Tacos Tacos in the then shack at the end of Broad Street. He wanted out and I wanted in. Then I opened The Shack (63 Surfside Road), Joe’s Grill (10 Broad Street) named after my then 6-year old son Joseph, the Panini Grill (Thames Street, Newport); then, when Henry’s became available I moved Tacos and Joe’s into it and started Easy Street Cantina. Thank you Bart and good luck! Children's Cafe at Children's Beach July 4, 2014 The latest from Visitor Services for Fourth of July Town- sponsored activities: 9:45 am -- 200th anniversary year of the Star Spangled Banner sung by Laura Gallagher Byrne on the steps of Bank of America at the top of Main Street 10:00 am -- All Main Street activities start 11:45 am – Waterfight starts (prepare to get WET) 5:00 pm – Children’s Beach: Games (sack races, tug-of-war); patriot kite flying; P.J. Moody performing on the stage 9:00 pm -- Jetties Beach: fireworks with music synchronized on 97.7 ACK FM (rain date. July 5) Volunteers always needed: email: khamilton@nantucket- ma.gov Check out the Visitor Services webpage for a detailed list of events and schedules Follow us on Twitter @NantucketBuzz; hashtag #ackfireworks NCH Walk in Clinic Click here to a flyer for a recent announcement from Nantucket Cottage Hospital about a summer walk-in clinic. Sprucing Things Up at the Atheneum Atheneum Director Molly Anderson and her staff were hard at work painting at the library earlier this week! Cheryl Creighton, Molly Anderson and Amy Jenness Town Clock Our Town Clock caretaker Alain Androuais of Americlock (who also goes by Alan Andrews for the Americans) was here this week and last week performing annual maintenance on the Town Clock and on the original clock works which are now in the custody of the Nantucket Historical Association and displayed at the Whaling Museum. Alain very kindly took me up into the clock tower for a visit to the modernized clock works. Click here for a short slideshow of the visit. While here, Alain got married to his fiancée Mary, at a brief, simple but very lovely ceremony at the Atheneum. Assistant Town Clerk Nancy Holmes performed the ceremony. Congratulations Alain and Mary! And, thank you to Elizabeth Oldham who is responsible for engaging Alain 12 years ago to modernize and overhaul the Town Clock. Steamship Authority/Nantucket Meeting The SSA held its monthly meeting here, on June 17th. Among the topics of discussion were a new boat (for the Vineyard primarily) and the new terminal at Woods Hole. Click here for a summary of what else happened at the meeting. SSA General Counsel Steve Sayers reviewing the new terminal options for Woods Hole In Memoriam An annual event to remember Our Island Home residents who passed away over the past year, was held on Wednesday, June 4 at the Island Home. Reverend Georgia Ann Snell gave lovely remembrance remarks, as she usually does, and there were nice refreshments afterwards, provided by OIH. Reverend Georgia Ann Snell Richard Loftin Laurie MacVicar-Fiske Board of Selectmen Activities Employee Compensation Overview Following discussion with various Board members over the last year or so regarding requests to better understand the structure of Town employee compensation, we prepared an Employee Compensation Overview for the Board’s June 11th workshop meeting. We selected one position from each union with which Town Administration negotiates (Fire, Police, Public Works, Laborer’s, Our Island Home; did not include Wannacomet Water, School or Airport) and compared the compensation structure of a 5-year employee to a 20-year employee, with and without health insurance benefits. Special thanks to our Benefits Assistant Amanda Johnson who prepared the presentation and obtained the information. National Grid Candle Street Lot & Valet Parking Thanks to National Grid, the downtown Candle Street lot opened for valet parking on Friday, June 13th, including limited overnight parking as a pilot program. This service was made possible through a partnership between National Grid, the Town of Nantucket and Valet Park of America to create a partial solution to Nantucket’s downtown parking problem. A ribbon cutting ceremony to kick off the 2014 summer season was held on Monday, June 16th: Shown are: Tim Graney, Vice President of Operations for Valet Park of America; Selectman Bruce Miller; Rachel Hobart of ReMain; and Steven Holdgate of National Grid, flanked by Valet Park employees Get to Know Your Town Volunteers This month, instead of a board, committee or commission member, I interviewed Genevieve Harmon who, while she is not strictly a volunteer, is a participant in the Town’s Senior Work-off Program. She has been working in Town Administration for several months helping with various office tasks. We have been fortunate to have her. Q: How long have you lived on Nantucket?A: I was born and brought up on Nantucket. Q. Have you volunteered for any other Town/community groups? A: I have volunteered at the Nantucket Elementary School in many capacities; my church – including chairperson of the Summer Fair; and chairperson on the Board of Directors at Landmark House. Q: What interests you about serving the Town makes you want to be involved? A: I have always been interested in how the Town runs. I make sure I vote in Town elections and have only missed attending 1 Town Meeting. I believe in the Town Meeting process and wish there was some way to get more people involved. Q: What is the most rewarding part about serving? A: I have been able to see how busy the town employees are and I’ve enjoyed helping out. Some days I feel I’ve accomplished a lot and feel rewarded in that I have been able to contribute. Q: What is the most challenging part? A: Becoming familiar with the system. Q: What is your favorite spot on Nantucket? A: Main Street, and the beach. We’re very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. Genevieve Harmon JUNE TRIVIA QUESTION Where is this? MAY TRIVIA QUESTION Who brought his automobile to Nantucket in 1913 in spite of a special act which excluded vehicles from the island? Answer: Clinton S. Folger CORRECT answers: Barbara Gookin (Barbara responded literally within seconds of the issuance of the e-newsletter!) Catherine Stover As always, ideas for future e-newsletter topics are welcome! Copyright © 2014 Town of Nantucket, All rights reserved. unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences