It is my pleasure to submit my second annual report to the Town since assuming the duties of Town Administrator on July 1, 2005.
This has been an extraordinarily busy year as the ensuing report will show. I would like to offer my thanks to the Board of Selectmen for continuing to allow me the privilege of serving the citizens of Ashburnham and to all of the Department Heads and Town employees for their dedicated service. The accomplishments which I will describe herein are the accomplishments of these fine people. They work very hard every day to satisfy the needs of Ashburnham and they are all proud of the work they do and the service they provide. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with them.
I am especially grateful for my Assistant, Sylvia Turcotte without whom the office of the Board of Selectmen and the Town Administrator could not function. She is truly a tireless worker and a consummate professional.
Herein then please find my report of highlights of this past calendar year.
Public Works
The Page's Beach project finally began in the summer of this year with several excellent bids received. Following a review of the bids, a contract was awarded to UEL Contractors, Inc. to install all water mains. In addition, the engineering firm of Tighe and Bond was hired to oversee all work and the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission was hired to administer the grant.
Work commenced in mid-July and was largely completed by the end of October. The project finished over a month ahead of schedule and nearly $180,000 under budget.
Due to this success it was possible to reinsert the road paving portion of the project which had been eliminated when the original grant amount was reduced by over $100,000.
Since the surplus was not known until late in the construction season, and there were other delays due to a few homeowners that were initially reluctant to connect to the new water mains, the road work could not begin in time to be concluded before winter.
As of this writing however, a contract for the road work has been awarded and that work will commence as soon as the spring construction season begins.
The success of this project, in terms of being on-time and below budget is owed in no small part to Jim Zarozinski and Mark Petersen of the Ashburnham Water Division for their tireless work in inspecting the project on a daily basis. Thanks are also due to Shelly Hatch of MRPC and Peter Valinski of Tighe and Bond both for their contributions to the project, and to Don Dobeck construction manager for UEL Contractors, Inc.
Finally, and most importantly of all, great recognition is due to retired Selectman Ron Reed and current State Senator Steven Brewer. It was their perseverance that caused the grant to be obtained even after two applications were denied. Ashburnham owes these two gentlemen a great debt of gratitude for their outstanding work in bringing us this grant and for making such a profound improvement in the lives of the residents in the Page's Beach area.
The Fitchburg Road water main project also began in the summer of this year after nearly a year of negotiations with the State Underground Storage Tank Board for permission by the Town to access the so-called 21J Fund monies that were pledged to clean-up the water well contamination in the area of the Boutwell's service station.
These negotiations were extremely protracted and required many meetings of staff, elected officials and the UST Board itself. Once again, Sen. Brewer was a formidable advocate on behalf of the Town and he was ably assisted by Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Jonathan Dennehy who attended all meetings of the UST Board and personally advocated the Town's position.
UST Board permission was eventually secured, in a landmark effort which had not previously been achieved by any other community in the Commonwealth and has not been since.
Following this permission, a contractor needed to be found who would agree to complete the project with no contract from the Town and no guarantee of payment from the State, save for the UST Board's promise to look favorably on the contractor's requests for payment.
Two bids to complete the work were submitted and the successful bidder was the design and construction team of GCG Engineering, and C.J. Doherty Construction Co. Their willingness to undertake this project, under such unusual circumstances is testimony to both companies' willingness to take great corporate risks in order to complete a project of great public importance. Without such willingness, the families affected by the pollution might have been condemned to continue with an uncertain future with respect to their drinking water supply. Thanks to their combined efforts however, by year's end all water mains were installed and about half the private water services were complete. All remaining services will complete as weather allows with all work expected to be finished by the start of spring.
The Town is deeply indebted to Mr. Charles Doherty, Mr. Michael J. Carter both principals of their companies and to the Project Engineer Mr. Laird Walsh.
We are also grateful for the leadership of former Board of Health member and now Selectman Mark Carlisle, who had the foresight to gather the parties that conceived the solution to this complicated problem and to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Boutwell for their cooperation throughout.
It became obvious by the middle of 2005 that the various public works departments might benefit from an organizational structure that would allow them to grow in future years in the most efficient way possible.
An internal review of these departments was undertaken and it was determined that a centralized Department of Public Works, under the direction of a DPW Director made the most sense. In addition, it was observed that the Town would benefit from requiring this position to also be a Registered Professional Engineer.
Accordingly, a new DPW structure was proposed, in accordance with the procedures outlined in the Charter, and was subsequently approved by the Selectmen.
In the fall of this year the position was advertised and by year's end interviews of three finalists were pending.
Final implementation of the new DPW structure and the naming of Ashburnham's first DPW Director/Town Engineer was scheduled to take place shortly after the first of the year.
In the Water/Sewer Division great changes were also made. First, the 2006 Annual Town Meeting approved legislation making the two divisions financially self-sufficient by adopting legislation creating water and a sewer enterprise fund. Henceforth, all costs of these two operations will be funded exclusively by their respective user fees and related charges.
Town Meeting also funded the first complete rate study for both operations to be undertaken as well as the preparation of the first complete 5-year capital plan.
By years end the capital plan was complete and had been presented and approved by the Water/Sewer Commissioners, to be included in the FY '08 capital budget.
The rate study was well underway also and was expected to be complete in February of 2007.
The excellent work of Veolia Corp. was recognized in July of 2006 with their award of a second five-year contract to operate the water treatment plant. The previous five-year contract had been completed with a remarkable record of not a single day lost due to maintenance problems.
Finally, in the area of public works, I was pleased to advise the Selectmen in July that we had been awarded a grant to reconstruct Ashby Road in the approximate amount of $1.9 million. We will complete the design portion of the project during fiscal year 2007 and hope to begin construction in 2008 or 2009 depending on the availability of Federal funds.
Personnel
During 2006 many changes to the Town's personnel were made.
A new DPW Director/Town Engineer position was funded and by the end of the year the list of candidates had been narrowed to three finalists. In January 2007, Mr. Don Ouellette was chosen as the Town's first DPW Director/Town Engineer.
All unions, including Police, Fire and Dispatchers were given new three year contracts, which included pay raises that brought our personnel in-line with regional averages. These pay raises will allow us to retain our excellent employees and to recruit highly qualified new employees as vacancies occur or new positions are established.
Non-union personnel were also given a new pay plan which also featured long overdue pay raises. Again, this will allow the Town to be more competitive in the marketplace when recruiting employees. A new Non-union Personnel By-law was approved by Town Meeting in May, 2006. This new by-law modernized the non-union benefit structure as well as our employee recruitment, retention and discipline systems.
During 2006 Paul Pollastri, the Town's long-term Treasurer/Collector retired and the position was split into its two parts with Carla Clifford assuming the duties of full-time Collector and Anne Cervantes hired as the part-time Treasurer.
A part-time Conservation Agent, Lori Capone, was also added to the staff during 2006, giving the Conservation Commission a professional employee to help discharge their duties.
The Town was deeply saddened by the passing of two long-time employees who both died after a long illness in the fall of 2006. Sue Dembek worked in the Land Use office for 11 years. Sue's ready smile and professionalism will be sorely missed by all. Anne Munroe worked as an Assessor for more than 20 years and was politically active in the community and is fondly remembered by all.
Financial
The 2006 Annual Town Meeting approved quarterly tax billing and this practice was quickly implemented, thanks to the excellent work of the Assessors, Collector, Treasurer and Town Accountant. The savings to the Town, in interest earnings and the avoidance of costly tax anticipation borrowings will be in the tens of thousands annually.
During 2006 the Collector began to lien delinquent sewer assessments for the first time, and the first ever formal water and sewer rate study was funded and begun. The consultant's report was still pending at year's end.
The annual town meeting also approved adoption of legislation that will make both the Water and Sewer Divisions self-supporting enterprise funds. Henceforth, both budgets will be supported solely by the users of the system, with no subsidy from general taxation.
Buildings/Facilities
During 2006 work on the new public safety building and the Town Hall renovation projects continued with both citizen committees doing excellent design work. By year's end both projects were out to bid and results eagerly anticipated.
Work on finding a new home for the DPW also continued by the Focus Committee and Town Planner Eric Smith. By year's end the search had been narrowed to three sites that were still being investigated.
Groundwater/air quality testing of the closed landfill, which had been neglected for some years, was also resumed in 2006 and the testing revealed that the landfill was not discharging any hazardous waste.
The Town also initiated and completed a five-year Information Technology plan, and the Annual Town Meeting provided $102,000 to begin implementation of the plan. Computers and telephones at Town Hall were the first systems modernized and implementation of both took place smoothly and with no downtime.
The Town also continued to develop its web page thanks to excellent work by all employees and the dedication of the Town's Webmaster Ken Dolder.
The Affordable Housing Committee and Town Planner completed the Town's first Affordable Housing Plan. The Town now has a blueprint for creating affordable housing opportunities, and can partner with developers and regional housing agencies to implement the plan.
Finally, by year's end the Selectmen had signed a lease agreement with Nextel, providing for the construction of a new radio tower on Meetinghouse Hill. As part of the agreement, Nextel will install Town-owned public safety antennas at the top of the tower, resolving the Town's long-standing public safety radio "dead spot" issues. As of the end of 2006 the Nextel proposal still needed approval of the Zoning Board of Appeals via public hearings.
These are just the highlights of the extensive work produced on behalf of Ashburnham's citizens by a large group of outstanding elected and appointed citizen volunteers assisted by the Town's excellent employees.
Once again, I thank all Town officials for their dedication on behalf of the Town. I also thank all Town employees, the Department Heads and especially my Assistant Sylvia Turcotte.
Since government is a service business, our employees are our greatest asset. It has been my great pleasure to work with all of them this past year, and through our excellent employees, to provide outstanding quality service to all of Ashburnham's citizens. Thank-you.
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