This report was presented by Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki at this week’s Board of Selectmen meeting on September 14th, and it covers topics of interest for town business from August 22nd to September 11th.
As the Board may recall, in the early winter of 2018, Essex and Manchester utilized grant funding to have the Collins Center at the University of Massachusetts complete an analysis of possible avenues for more collaboration and sharing of services between the two communities. The report looked at collaborative initiatives that were already in place in each community and was released in October of 2019. School Committee Member Annie Cameron, Finance Committee Chairman Ben Buttrick, Selectman Phippen, and the Town Administrator (TA) recently discussed the possibility of following up on the effort and report.
The following lists were generated by the study for Essex, including existing collaboration with Manchester, and with other communities:
Manchester and Essex
• Manchester Essex Regional School District
• Vocational Education (Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School
District)
• North Shore Joint Purchasing Consortium for road salt/chemicals
• Formal Mutual Aid Agreements – Police and Fire
• Age and Dementia Friendly Community Initiative
• Senior Van Services
• Household Hazardous Waste Day
• Maintenance of streetlights by the Town of Ipswich (Beginning soon)
• Retirement System – Essex Regional Retirement District
• Fire Explorers
• Emergency Planning (Cape Ann Emergency Planning Team (Also includes
Ipswich)
• Healthy Eating and Lifestyle (Cape Ann ‘Mass in Motion’)
Essex
• Shared sewer camera with Town of Rockport
• Water Interconnection with Gloucester and Hamilton
• Wastewater Treatment Agreement with the City of Gloucester
• Eastern Essex Veterans Services District (Essex, Hamilton, Georgetown,
Ipswich, Newbury, Rowley, Wenham, West Newbury)
• Building Commissioner – Off hours use of the Gloucester Building Official
• Town Planner – Off hours use of a Newburyport City official
• Assessor – Elected official but also off hours use of a Danvers professional
assessor.
• IT Services - Support and disaster recovery, provided by Town of Danvers.
• Shared patrol of Chebacco Lake with Hamilton officials.
• Emergency Dispatch – provided by North Shore Regional 911 Center.
• Greenhead Fly Control – Northeast Mosquito Management District
Three areas of near-term collaboration were identified in the TA’s report of April 22, 2019, as the study was unfolding, as follows:
The first area includes sharing an on-call utility contractor with Manchester for emergency water/sewer repairs and the Board of Public Works has been put directly in touch with the Manchester Department of Public Works Director to determine if they would like to collaborate.
The second area is a program to receive alternative on-bill energy credits (AOBCs). Manchester is already participating in one of these programs and considers it very successful. Manchester has offered to assist the Town with the application preparation, since Manchester has already done much of the legwork and vetting.
The third area of interest involves Manchester and Essex sharing a contract with Ipswich Light for maintenance and/or repair of town streetlights. The two towns will continue to work with Ipswich towards some type of formal agreement.
The first and third items above have already been executed and established. The second item, involving AOBC’s, has been elusive. The first project the Town wanted to subscribe to (SunRaise) was not able to accept new subscriptions. We are presently working to be involved with a new project (through Quest Energy).
It should also be mentioned that Essex now has an OSHA Coordinator as a peripheral duty of the Board of Health Administrator. Essex may be able to continue collaborating with Manchester around OSHA training and compliance and the two communities have already worked on two training grants together.
The Board eventually asked that we use the results of a study of 8 to 10 area communities that was going to be undertaken by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) in 2020 be used to gauge how we are doing with respect to costs for various services, as compared to others. Unfortunately, due to COVID, that study was put on hold right after the various communities submitted requested initial financial data.
In addition, the boards of selectmen from the two communities reviewed the recommendations of the report on August 19, 2019 for future possible collaboration. The minutes of that meeting highlighted the following: Review Recommendations were highlighted in 7 categories: General Government, Police, Fire, Dispatch, DPW, Inspections and Public Health.
Additional sections focused on specific areas where the Towns could further expand joint efforts: Senior Citizen Services, Youth Services, Community Health Needs Assessment, Regional Energy, Dredging, Streetlight Maintenance and Regional Housing Partnerships…
…Following the comprehensive presentation and recommendations it was concluded the Towns would meet over the next few weeks to further discuss and review options additionally it will be critical to gauge support in the Towns.
Further, the Manchester Essex Regional School District administration suggested
that the District could be involved in several key areas including:
Personnel Benefits Administration – This area is not so much a need in
Essex, with its small number of employees, but more-so in Manchester.
Facilities Management – Essex could definitely benefit from the staff
Facilities Manager at the District, especially for the initial diagnosis of
matters giving rise to complaints or observed problems, and later, to help
organize scopes of work and hire contractors. Manchester may also be
able to provide this type of service, since Manchester now also has a
Facilities Manager.
IT Network Administration – While the District does have a full IT
department, Essex and several other communities, including Manchester,
have coalesced around the Town of Danvers remote, by fiber, IT solutions.
School Resource Officer – The two communities worked together with the
District to make this happen. A SRO was hired and is paid for mostly
with District funds. Some hours not spent at the schools are paid for by
Manchester, since the SRO is a Manchester officer. Presently, due to
changing budgets and COVID-related policies at the District, the SRO
position is expected to take on a different look over the coming year.
At this time, the three entities may wish to take stock of our progress and propose
new initiatives, after reviewing progress to date. The three entities can begin by
discussing these matters at the next small group collaboration meeting.
Recommendation: Board discussion as necessary.
Town Administrator’s Report, September 14, 2020 – Page 4
As is the case each year, our Auditor performs an IT audit with respect to the
Town’s financially-related functions. This year, the firm provided three minor
recommendations that the TA will execute over the coming year. The firm delivered no
critical findings or defects.
As is the case each year, Mr. Zubricki has arranged for vendor INS to conduct penetration
testing on our Internet-facing router and to conduct e-mail Phishing and social
engineering challenges to our employees. The penetration testing ensures that we
do not have any known security weaknesses that would allow a hacker to breach
our network from the outside. The phishing and social engineering challenges
ensure that we continue to remind our employees about the danger of clicking on
unfamiliar links or attachments and questioning unfamiliar phone calls with
respect to our IT infrastructure. Testing will occur likely later this month or in
October.
At the last meeting, the Board decided it would be best to continue the
development of a workplan and standard operating procedures for the
Harbormaster Department in a small group consisting of the TA, Chairman
Pereen, the Chief of Police, and the Harbormaster. As such, the group convened
on September 2, 2020 and went over the present proposal and further input from
the Harbormaster. The Workplan is moving along nicely and additional
comments on a further review draft will be discussed in the coming week.
The call for nominations for Employee of the Year and Volunteer of the Year was
released on August 31, 2020, with a nomination deadline of September 25, 2020.
This year, since we may have the Fall Town Meeting early, there will probably
not be time to collect nominations, make decisions, and get awards made up. As
such, the ceremony for the awards may need to be at a later date.
Chairman Pereen and Mr. Zubricki attended construction project meetings on August 27,
September 3, and September 10, 2020. The project continues to move along as
per plan and the contractor is completing much of the building envelope work
soon. The contractor is presently working on generator and mechanical pads,
sheathing/framing/blocking, interior framing on both the lower and the upper
levels with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing overhead rough-ins.
The TA met with the southern abutter on August 31, 2020, along with our construction
contractor’s foreman and our resident engineer from NV5 to discuss screening
and plantings with the abutter. He prefers an eight-foot fence as opposed to the
specified, six-foot fence and it is very apparent that the eight-foot fence would be
much better from his vantage point, for privacy. Also, rather than just a few
arborvitae plants along the sloped in front of the concrete retaining wall that is
clearly visible from his property, it would be preferable to plant additional
arborvitae, to obscure the wall more thoroughly.
A new Essex resident whose company specializes in COVID disinfection offered
a complementary disinfection of the Town Hall, using two technologies. First, he
offered to disinfect the entire building using electrostatic application of a
botanical disinfection agent. The second application offered was the spraying of a
surface barrier that carries continuing disinfection qualities for 90 days. Both
applications were carried out on September 3, 2020. Electrostatic disinfection is
already in use weekly at the Fire/Police Headquarters and in all fire/police
vehicles.
Each September, department heads gather to review the Town’s Risk Assessment
and Monitoring Plan. Since Town operations and services can change from time
to time, this meeting is intended to ensure that the Plan keeps in step. The Plan is
intended to raise awareness about areas where financial fraud could be committed
and includes detailed breakdowns concerning areas to be vigilant in with respect
to each major Town department. This year, the meeting will be held on September
24, 2020.
At the last meeting, the Board tackled the question of whether commercial use of
the Town Landing boat ramp is allowed. The Board decided that it should not be
allowed and reviewed other suggested changes to the Town Landing regulations.
The TA has developed a revised draft of the regulations for the Board’s approval at the
present meeting.
At the last meeting, the Board asked that the TA draw up a potential change to the Essex
Clamming regulations that would stop the issuance of annual family use (mess)
permits for clamming. This halt in issuance could also form the basis for the
number of annual permits issued next year. The Town will still need to continue
issuing one-day mess permits. In a related matter discussed in Section J(1),
above, only those with an annual mess permit will be allowed to launch at Town
Landing.
At the last meeting, the Board agreed with some of the public comments that had
been received relative to the promulgation of the subject regulations and
disagreed with others. The Board also selected a preferred application form from
several examples that Town Counsel had provided. Mr. Zubricki has revised the documents
accordingly, for the Board’s review.
At the last meeting, the Board provided guidance on the addition of two new
warrant topics and was to review items not currently included on the draft warrant
for the present meeting. An additional potential warrant article has been raised in
the meantime. As noted on the meeting agenda, the Board may consider changing
the date of the Fall Town Meeting to October 3, 2020, outdoors, on the school
grounds with a rain date of October 10, 2020.
Unfortunately, the grant application prepared by Boston University personnel
regarding the potential benefit of filling mosquito ditches (possibly with material
dredged from the navigable channel) was not funded for this round. BU
personnel will determine whether they wish to reapply in the spring, possibly after
getting feedback from the grantmaker with respect to the application.
The office was closed on September 7, 2020, in observance of the subject holiday.
Mr. Zubricki was out of the office, on leave, for a portion of the day on August 26 and
September 3, 2020 and all day on September 4, 2020.
This report is available at www.essexma.org on the morning after any regularly
scheduled Essex Board of Selectmen’s Meeting.
