Department Report
November 2018
November
The final walk through for the Elm Street Sidewalk Replacement Project was completed in late November. This project, funded by the state's Complete Streets program, is now finished, adding 800 feet of new sidewalk and improving school safety.
The Finance Team continues to improve the town's financial management practices, reviewing four new financial policies for final approval by the Finance Committee and Select Board. Additionally, the team reviewed initial FY20 revenue projections and the first draft of the FY20-24 Financial Forecast. Finally, the team closed the books on FY18 and prepared for the tax Classification hearing held on November 26th.
The Town Administrator completed successful negotiations with the City of Gardner to regionalize the Building Department's inspection services for a period of seven months. This pilot agreement will run through the end of the fiscal year, gathering data on a longer-term decision about the efficacy of a Gardner-Hubbardston Building Department. Hubbardston will continue to maintain office hours in the town to include the ability of contractors and residents to meet with town staff during regularly scheduled hours.
The Select Board authorized the Town Administrator to enter into an agreement with Helene-Karl Architects for the purposes of updating cost estimates for replacing aging and ineffective municipal buildings. The three options being updated are a Public Safety/Senior Center/Town Hall multi-purpose building, a Public Safety/Town Hall building and a single Public Safety building. The purpose of including all three options to understand the cost of each necessary upgrade in order to present the findings to Town Meeting.
The Town Administrator also presented his Report of Entry Findings to the Select Board, outlining the first nine months of employment and executive analysis that will inform a larger strategic plan for the next five years. See the report and presentation here.
Finally, the Town Administrator recognized Veteran Services Officer Jared Sharp for receiving his state veteran services certification. Additionally, Jared attended the state's annual training conference, furthering his knowledge of local, state and federal benefits.
Next Month
The FY20 budget process will continue with the estimation or revenues, initializing department budget requests and the completion of a five-year financial forecast. All findings will be presented to the Select Board in preparation for the Town Administrator's budget presentation in early February.
November
Our Veteran Services Officer worked one-on-one with a Korean War veteran to resubmit an important disability claim. The VSO also attended the Veterans Day dinner at the Rod and Gun Club. All benefit accounts were paid appropriately and finalized through October.
November
Our focus this month has been getting the trucks ready for the winter season. This year we took a step forward by adding electronic spinners to the 2018 and the 2015 Freightliners. This allows us to be more precise with our road-salt quantities. We will continue to brush cut around town when weather permits.
Our line painting has finished for the year with New Westminster being the last road completed. Our new 2005 Trackless sidewalk plow and sander is ready to go for the season and the lean to on the salt shed for the 3-1 sand mix is nearly complete. This project is being completed by Monty Tech students and is exceeding expectations in terms of quality and cost.
Next Month
Our focus will be to continue keeping our roads safe and working on up cutting brush.
November
The Board of Library Commissioners certified the Hubbardston Public Library to participate in the FY 2019 State Aid to Public Libraries Program. The Hubbardston Public Library met all requirements and will receive grants totaling $6,182 for FY 2019.
In preparation for our new roof project, the library contracted NU Drain Solutions to inspect and jet clean of debris, the library downspout underground piping.
A new Wi-Fi router was purchased from our library network provider, CWMARS. This router is designed to improve the overall Wi-Fi experience and will increase the speed of connection.
Next Month
How to Pastel Paint Monet’s Water Lilies with Greg Maichack, professional artist and instructor, is scheduled for Thursday, December 6, 2018 from 6-8 pm. Perfect event for teens, adults and seniors. A workshop for beginners to advanced artists. All materials are provided
Participants leave with their own "Water Lilies" painting created during the workshop using professional grade pastels, paper and materials. Space is limited for this FREE program. Reserve your spot by calling the library at 978-928-4775. This program is funded by the Hubbardston Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
November
All forms have now been submitted to the Dept. of Revenue for the new tax rate. Once the rate is approved, our office will print the real estate and personal property bills to be mailed by December 31, 2018.
Marcia Bohinc from the state’s Division of Local Services spent a day answering questions and offering suggestions for financial best practices.
Because of the town’s Standard & Poor’s Rating of AA+, the Treasurer was able to borrow $550,000 to finance the new fire truck and refinance a DPW truck purchased last year at an interest rate of 2.70%.
Work continues on preparing FY17 outstanding taxes for advertisement. Demand bills were mailed for unpaid excise taxes for Commitment #5, and warrants were issued for Commitment #4 unpaid bills. A new Commitment was mailed on Nov. 27th due Dec 27th. Our office processed three payroll and three accounts payable warrants this month..
We have been working with Harper’s Payroll to include all accruals – vacation, sick, personal and military leave on employees’ pay records. All employees will be switching to direct deposit with the ability to log in to view their records. This will save the Town time and money in addition to being a part of our initiative to be more ecofriendly. Our goal is to have this in place by February 1st.
November
With building season winding down, the board of health is now scheduling additional perc tests. A perc test is a is a test to determine the water absorption rate of soil (that is, its capacity for percolation) in preparation for the building of a septic drain field (leach field) or infiltration basin. Office staff continues to clean up old files to include implementing a file destruction list based on state retention laws. Lastly, the department began building FY2020 budget requests with the Board of Health.
Next Month
The department will send out renewal letters for permits, set new fee rates and draft/publish three department procedures.
November 2018
The Planning Board Office worked hard in November updating the current Planning Board Meeting Minutes and Agenda templates, attaching associated documentation so that those reading the documents can easily reference what will be / was discussed
Department personnel also worked on understanding the the Planning Board Accounts (see preliminary report attached as page 5 here)
And finally, the department worked on updating the Planning Board Website to include updated hours, purpose, contact information
Next Month
In addition to continued efforts to work on research into Planning Board Accounts, this month will see the Planning Board enlisting assistance from a member of the Senior Work-Off Program to improve organization of the filing system in preparation for the Planning Board’s future plans to digitize their files.
November
This was a very busy month with Early Voting for 2 weeks and the preparation, reporting and certification of the State Election. Election Day went quite smoothly with a turnout of 68% or almost 2300 voters! Thanks to our fantastic Election Workers; Ann Gushue, Shonna Larson, B. J. Begin, Kathy Vincent, Marcia Howlett, Patricia Burke, Lynn Wilkinson, Carol Whitney, Patricia Woodward, Laura Milko, and Lucinda Oates.
Other tasks accomplished:
· ordered 2019 dog tags; red rosettes
· completed department reporting for Tax Rate approval
· annual renewal of raffle permits
Next Month
FY2020 Departmental Budget completed by December 20
Continue refining resident list in anticipation of the Annual Street Listing (Census)
Annual distribution of Conflict of Interest summary to all employees & board members
Biennial distribution of Conflict of Interest online training and collection of certificates for all employees & board members
November
This has been a busy month!
As always, we completed our monthly newsletter and the revamped SHINE program is also well underway. We offer two SHINE educational meetings per month to the public and offer private appointments every Friday with Glen Gregory, our new counselor.
Our Singers are continuing to prepare for their Christmas Concerts to include completing a performance at the Holden Nursing Home on November 27th.
Renovations continue at the Center with Monty Tech students helping to construct a new sign for the Senior Center
Some special events this month included the Veterans Breakfast on November 10th, our flu shot clinic for seniors and town employees, assisting with the Nativity Scene by the church on the corner of Williamsville road and Route 68 and decorating the Senior Center for the holidays the day after Thanksgiving.
Regularly scheduled monthly events included providing eggs and produce, cards, bingo ,walking club, Meals on Wheels meals, singing , bowling, golden age meetings, Friends of the Hubbardston Senior Center meetings and more!
November
This month saw the completion of quite a few construction projects that the HPD worked to maintain the safe motoring of the public.
November also marked the end of the Pink Patch Project and on November 14 Chief Perron and Officer Christ Bergeron were able to present a donation to Pink Revolution for $915.00. This organization provides various services to woman suffering from breast cancer and are a local group. It was an honor to meet with them and present the check.
November also marked the kick off of the annual toy collection for the Community Holiday Outreach Program. We expect to report the results of our efforts in December.
In November we made 9 arrests and made 209 motor vehicle stops.
November
Completed annual business and liquor license inspection for 10 businesses in town. Completed application processes for annual ambulance inspection.
Next Month
We will have our ambulance service inspection by the state agency OEMS which covers all aspects of the services from training, staffing, documentation and all equipment.
November
October deeds were processed – A sales report was created and distributed
Sales Verifications sent to new home owners
Imported the 2018-06 Motor Vehicle Excise tax file totaling $12,913.58
Started the mailing process for the 2020 Forms of List for all businesses and 2nd homes in town
Processed Motor Vehicle Abatements
The assessors have received approval from the Department of Revenue for the valuation certification and new growth
Attended the BOS tax classification hearing and accepted the new tax rate.
Next Month:
FY19 Actual Tax File will be uploaded into SoftRight
Continuing the process for the 2020 Forms of List
November
Researched several queries from both realtors and residents regarding the buildable status of a few properties; two lots in Pinecrest and another two lots listed on Old Westminster Road.
Approximately 23 inspections scheduled and completed with Certificates of Completions written and mailed to home owners. Some of these inspections included the yearly safety and liquor license renewal inspections; these inspections must occur yearly for 14 businesses in town, they are a combination of safety inspections and for those businesses that need to have their liquor licenses renewed for 2019.
Attended several meetings with Gardner regarding the regionalization of the Building Department; and the business of transitioning our new open permits to the new inspection team at Gardner City Hall.
Researched and compiled historical data; requests from both the planning board and the US Census Bureau regarding housing units review. Both the board and the HUR need numbers of new housing units from 2010-2018.
Permit Numbers for November 2018:
Processed and issued the following permits:
6 Building permits for various projects including:
4 permits for home renovations & 2 permits for residential solar with a combined estimated value of $106, 780.
Collected fees of $1,417
Other permits issued:
· 2 Residential Electric Permits (Fees=$114)
· 6 Gas Permits - 5 Res Plumbing & 1 Commercial (Fees=$648)
· 2 Plumbing Permits - 1 Res Plumbing & 1 Commercial (Fees= $319)
Total values for November 2018 totaling $108,880.00 (Fees= $1849.00)
Next Month
Regionalization with Gardner is expected to be completed on December 1st, so the focus in December will be to continue the transitioning of our inspectional services to Gardner; this means transferring all open permits that are currently with our local inspection team to the Gardner inspectors, and working with the new team on a seamless new permit application approval and inspection processes.
The following items were collected: 31 gallons of waste oil, 7 gallons of anti-freeze, 4 lead acid batteries, 6 oil filters, 12 tires, 8 televisions, 3 computers, 1 air purifier, 1 portable florescent light, 1 snow blower, 4 propane tanks, 1 lawn mower, 5 microwaves, 1 air conditioner, 1 dehumidifier, 4 household appliances and 1 CiCad batter.
The department will open again in April weather permitting.
About Us
Email: admin@hubbardstonma.us
Website: www.hubbardstonma.us
Location: 7 Main Street, Hubbardston, MA, USA
Phone: 978-928-1400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TownofHubbardston/
Twitter: @hubbardstonma