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Annual
Report of
the MUNICIPAL
OFFICERS of
the Northport
Village Corporation
August
14, 2007
Cover
Courtesy Bayside
Historical Preservation Society
Dedication This
Annual Report is humbly dedicated with deep gratitude to the brave men and women
of the Northport Volunteer Fire Department and the friends and neighbors who
risked their lives and personal safety to protect the homes of the residents of We all have different reasons that we love this small village. We talk of the beauty of the Bay, the clarity of the air, the friendships and families that are renewed each season. We all were reminded, however, that one real wonder of Bayside is in the character, courage and kindness of those who give aid without caution and comfort without reservation. The evidence of the extent of the tragedy stood stark against the dark sky on that grim night. But, the proof of the bravery of these firefighters, trained and amateur was what will endure. The entire Community gave thanks that day of Thanksgiving for what was saved. And with this Dedication, we give thanks anew.
Table
of Contents Emergency
Numbers....................................................................................................
4 Village
Officers.............................................................................................................
5 Public
Notice of 2007 Annual Meeting (Warrant)..........................................................
6 Budget
for General Government..................................................................................
10 President’s
Report......................................................................................................
11 Communications
Committee........................................................................................
11 Surface
Runoff Report................................................................................................
12 Utilities
Committee......................................................................................................
12 Safety
Committee.......................................................................................................
15 Village
Agent..............................................................................................................
15 Parks—Tree
Warden.................................................................................................
16 Wharfmaster
Report...................................................................................................
16 Northport
Yacht Club.................................................................................................
18 Bayside
Historical Preservation Society.......................................................................
19 Bayside
Garden Club..................................................................................................
20 Clerk’s
Report of the 2006 Annual Meeting................................................................
21 Tax
Liens...................................................................................................................
26 Bayside
Building and Plumbing Permits........................................................................
27 Deaths........................................................................................................................
27
Northport
Village Corporation EMERGENCY
NUMBERS Fire 911 Medical 911 Waldo County Sheriff 338-2040 or 1-800-660-3398 - - - - - - - - Village
Office
338-0751 Village Office Hours Tuesday – Friday 9:30 – 3:30; Saturday 9:30 – 12:00 Village Agent Bill Paige, 338-0751 Utilities Superintendent Dick McElhaney, 338-0751 Wharfmaster Gordon Fuller, 338-5387 Assistants Drexel White, 338-6085; Ed Williams 338-2616 (summer) 338-2236 (winter) Harbormaster Drexel White, 338-6085 Direct all questions to the NVC office. Meetings of the Board of Overseers are posted on the Village Bulletin Boards. The NVC Annual Meeting is the 2nd Tuesday in August. NVC owns and operates the water and sewer systems. Northport
Village Corporation Village
Officers
President Josiah Huntoon Treasurer Julian Sheffield Clerk Elizabeth Wilson Board
of Overseers January 1 – August 2006 Peter Allen, Margaret Brockway, William Cressey, David Crofoot, Linda Houghton, Judy Metcalf, Peter Spollett August 8, 2006 – August 14, 2007 Peter Allen, Margaret Brockway, William Cressey, Linda Houghton, Rick Melone, Judy Metcalf, Judy Rohweder
Public Notice Northport Village Corporation Annual Meeting August 14, 2007 6:30 PM To
Sal Demeo, Police Chief of the Northport Village Corporation in the GREETING: In the name of the State of Maine, you are hereby required to notify and warn the inhabitants of the Northport Village Corporation in Waldo County, Maine, qualified by law to vote in town affairs, to meet at the Community Hall in Bayside on Tuesday the 14th day of August A.D. 2007, at 6:30 o’clock in the evening, then and there to act upon the following articles: Article 1: To choose a Moderator by written ballot to preside at said meeting. Article 2: President’s Report. Article 3: Treasurer’s Report. Article
4:
To
see if the Northport Village Corporation will vote to appropriate and authorize
a majority of the overseers of the Corporation to borrow on behalf of the
Northport Village Corporation a principal amount not to exceed $400,000 and to
issue and sell for that purpose general obligation bonds or notes of the
Northport Village Corporation, the proceeds to be used for the purpose of
financing improvements to the waterfront, wharf, and roads within the Village
Corporation including but not limited to reconstruction of the causeway, the
roads, and beach breakwater, such bonds and notes to be issued upon such further
terms or conditions as may be determined by a majority at least of the overseers
of the Northport Village Corporation, and further to authorize the overseers to
accept and expend federal or state grants, execute any and all contracts and
documents and take any and all actions necessary or convenient to issue the
bonds or notes of the Northport Village Corporation and accomplish the Project. Financial
Statement 1.
Total Indebtedness A.
Bonds outstanding and unpaid
$ 1,316,283 B.
Bonds authorized and unissued
$
0
C.
Bonds to be issued if this question is approved:
$ 400,000 TOTAL
$ 1,716,283 2.
Costs At
an estimated interest rate of 5 % for a term of 15 years, the estimated costs of
this bond issue will be: Principal
$ 400,000 Interest
$
178,053 Total
Debt Service
$ 578,053 3.
Validity The
validity of the bonds and of the voters' ratification of the bonds may not be
affected by any errors in the above estimates.
If the actual amount of the total debt service for the bond issue varies
from the estimate, the ratification by the electors is nevertheless conclusive
and the validity of the bond issue is not affected by reason of the variance. ______________/S/___________________ Treasurer,
Northport Village Corporation Article
5:
To
see if the Northport Village Corporation will vote to appropriate and authorize
a majority of the overseers of the Corporation to borrow on behalf of the
Northport Village Corporation a principal amount not to exceed $200,000 and to
issue and sell for that purpose general obligation bonds or notes of the
Northport Village Corporation, the proceeds to be used for the purpose of
financing improvements to the Sewer System within the Village Corporation
including but not limited to repair of Collection Piping, Wastewater Outfall and
Treatment Plant, such bonds and notes to be issued upon such further terms or
conditions as may be determined by a majority at least of the overseers of the
Northport Village Corporation, and further to authorize the overseers to accept
and expend federal or state grants, execute any and all contracts and documents
and take any and all actions necessary or convenient to issue the bonds or notes
of the Northport Village Corporation and accomplish the Project. Financial
Statement 1.
Total Indebtedness A.
Bonds outstanding and unpaid
$ 1,316,283 B.
Bonds authorized and unissued
$
0
C.
Bonds to be issued if this question is approved:
$ 200,000 TOTAL
$ 1,516,283
2.
Costs At
an estimated interest rate of 5 % for a term of 15 years, the estimated costs of
this bond issue will be: Principal
$ 200,000 Interest
$ 89,026 Total
Debt Service
$ 289,026 3.
Validity The
validity of the bonds and of the voters' ratification of the bonds may not be
affected by any errors in the above estimates.
If the actual amount of the total debt service for the bond issue varies
from the estimate, the ratification by the electors is nevertheless conclusive
and the validity of the bond issue is not affected by reason of the variance. _______________/S/__________________ Treasurer,
Northport Village Corporation Article 6: To see what sums of money the Northport Village Corporation will raise and appropriate for the following accounts for the fiscal year 2008: Overseers’ Proposed Budget Total Income $189,500 Expenses General Government $64,750 Roads & Storm Drains 21,000 Protection & Safety 23,950 Community 20,500
Debt Service & Reserve
19,300
Capital Projects
40,000 Total Expenses $189,500 This
money will be raised as follows: $25,000 to be requested from the Town of Article 7: To approve borrowings by the Northport Village Corporation in an amount not to exceed $50,000 for working capital purposes. Funds are to be borrowed in anticipation of the 2008 taxes. Article 8: To approve borrowings by the Northport Village Corporation in an amount not to exceed $100,000. Funds are to be used towards replacement of the Community Hall and Wharf as needed, emergency repairs to utilities operated by the Village Corporation, for reconstruction of shoreline damage to property owned by the Northport Village Corporation as a result of a storm, or repair of roads owned by the Corporation. Article
9: To fix a rate of interest on taxes delinquent after November 30, 2007, equal
to that charged by the Town of Article 10: To approve the proposed new Fire Ordinance. Article 11: To approve the proposed Bylaw changes. Article 12: To elect the Officers by written ballot (President, Clerk, and Treasurer). Article 13: To elect Overseers by written ballot. Article 14: Reports of Committees:
ADJOURNMENT Dated: July 15, 2007 Northport Village Corporation Josiah P. Huntoon, Jr., President Elizabeth Wilson, Clerk Julian Sheffield, Treasurer BOARD OF OVERSEERS Peter Allen Margaret Brockway William Cressey Rick Melone Linda Houghton Judy Metcalf Judy Rohweder A true copy of the warrant, Attest: Elizabeth Wilson, Clerk Northport Village Corporation Note: Due to early publication, this warrant may be changed or amended before the August 14th Annual Meeting. Current annual financials and Auditor’s Report will be provided at the Annual Meeting.
Proposed Budget
Northport
Village Corporation June
2007 The
Overseers and Officers continue to wrestle with the problems of providing the
services needed in the village without increasing the taxes. The current budget
was held to an increase to cover the surface runoff problems. Phase
I - the paving of The
Utility Committee continues to work on the infiltration problems in an aging
sewer system, and is working out a plan to repair the sewer lines. The
April storm has presented the Village with an accelerated problem. Access to the
wharf has been compromised. A quick fix was done for this summer season. The
Overseers are working on a permanent solution for the wharf access and the
shoreline next to the wharf. As part of the plan we have contacted FEMA for
assistance. The
Town has voted to help pay for the new boat float. We have also determined that
the swim float will need to be replaced shortly and are working on plans to have
it replaced. As
part of the normal budgeting process, the Overseers are developing a plan to use
existing funds to borrow money to fund the early completion of capital projects
- the surface runoff work and the necessary repairs to the wharf area. We expect
to have a warrant article to cover this borrowing for approval at this year's
Annual Meeting. Communications Committee One of the continuing goals of your Board of Overseers has been to assure that communication is direct and easy. The Office is your office. Come down and introduce yourself to Paul Bartels, our office administrator for your village. You can get your dump stickers here, ask about your bills, tax or utility, or just inquire of the volunteer opportunities available in the Village. He will strive to be helpful, accurate, and efficient. In
furtherance of our communication and access goal, we have also expanded our
office hours. Our office is open the following days and times: Tuesday
through Friday 9:30 – 12:30; Saturday 9:30 – 12:00. Our work is your business. All our meetings are public, except those specifically noticed and to be executive session. Under the Right of Access Policy, you may obtain copies of our work, minutes, papers. We hope this will facilitate our continuing effort to assure transparency and satisfaction with our work. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not be reticent. Come to our meetings and tell us how we’re doing. Judy Metcalf Surface Runoff Report 2007 We have started to carry out the improvements required to handle surface runoff adequately. The need for infrastructure improvements was initially detailed in a report submitted to the Village by Dirigo Engineering in May 2000. At that time the Village was also undertaking needed improvements to our water and sewer systems and surface runoff problems initially took a back seat to those other projects. During
the summer of 2006, the Village engaged the services of Al Hodsdon, a consulting
engineer. Al reviewed the earlier
proposals, personally evaluated the roads in the core village and presented
recommendations to the Surface Runoff Committee.
During the winter of 2006-2007, we were able to address the worst of the
problems by installing new drains and catch basins on George and Main Streets
and by paving the block of At a workshop in May, the Overseers decided to present to the Village a proposal to borrow funds for capital improvements to our wharf, floats, waterfront, and roads. This proposal is schedule to be considered by the voters at the NVC Annual Meeting in August 2007. Assuming
the loan proposal is approved by the voters, the Surface Runoff Committee will
propose several additional projects to be undertaken during the Fall of 2007,
specifically on Maple, Bay, Submitted by Bill Cressey Utilities Committee 2006-2007 The Utilities Committee this year
consisted of David Crofoot (Chairman), Linda Houghton, Judy Metcalf, Judy
Rohweder, Jane Strauss, and Superintendent Dick McElhaney.
Former member Richard Brockway continued to be involved as an ex-officio
engineering consultant.
We met monthly, usually on
the second Friday in the afternoon. Our
main concerns were the operations of the Water Utility, Budgeting and bill
collection, payment of bonded indebtedness, operation of the Sewer utility
within the constraints of our license, identification and remediation of
problems of wastewater inflow and infiltration, and ongoing compliance with the
DEP consent agreement and planning for the major remediation of our treatment
plant which they wish to see. This year saw 5 new water customers
to a total of 296 customers.
Our water usage peaks in the summer in the range of 44000
gallons per day and declines in the winter to 12000 gpd.
Our water which comes from the We are very pleased to report that
the Sewer Utility got through the entire year without a license
violation—whether for quality of effluent, discharge of TSS (solids) or
BOD (organic content), or volume excesses. Much
of this is due to the remedial work done in the Village during the Phase I
infrastructure project and to the identification and correction of several
significant areas of subsurface infiltration identified by Dick McElhaney.
The correction of the calibration of our flow meter corrected a
factitious exaggeration of our flows. We
hope that this is both pleasing and reassuring to those at the DEP who oversee
our license and our consent agreement. We currently discharge a daily
average of 8 pounds of BOD, 4 pounds
of TSS, and 30,000 gallons per day. The
flow varies from 58000gpd in the wet months of the Spring
and Fall, to 22000 gpd in the dry summer months and 4000gpd in the frozen winter
months. Our license limits are 76 lbs/d of TSS, 107 lbs/day of BOD, and 63,000
gpd of flow volume. The high
flows in the spring and fall when population is reduced are dramatic evidence
that there is still significant inflow and infiltration of groundwater into the
system. Old collection pipes in the This year’s state bond proposals do
not include money for our project whose cost is estimated at $3 million and
money will not be available for at least two years.
We would encourage any Baysider who is looking at his personal giving or
estate plan to consider a gift to the Utilities Department to help defray the
Village’s costs in these projects. Whenever a homeowner applies for a
building permit to build, enlarge, or install a foundation, he is required to
replace their house service with modern pipe as part of their building permit.
We would like to find a way to encourage homeowners to replace these
house connections in general, and in particular when a leak is identified. We continue to investigate ways to
improve the performance of our existing primary treatment plant.
The current series of large settling tanks allows solids to be settled
(and pumped out twice a year); from May 15 to September 15, liquid effluent is
chlorinated to disinfect and then dechlorinated prior to discharge to the Bay.
A team of engineering students from the Our system was designed and licensed
to serve a very small and specific community.
It was not intended to be expanded. There
are currently 238 sewer customers. The
Utilities
Ordinance adopted last year specifically notes that sewer mains will not be
extended to serve new areas. When we
examine a request for permission to connect, we make recommendations based on
whether the system still has capacity to deal with a new customer and whether
the applicant has sufficient land to provide his own wastewater treatment on
site. We had a particularly heavy northeast
storm this April which played havoc with the roads and the waterfront.
Storm surge probably backed ocean water up into our system.
Our annual inspection of the sewer outfall pipe this May revealed a leak.
The repair of this leak required a team of divers and considerable
unanticipated expense which may cut into the funds we had anticipated devoting
to the correction of I&I this year. The fire which destroyed Drexel
White’s house on McElhaney monitored flows and
pressures at the vault to be sure that they did not draw our water pipes down
into negative pressure which can contaminate the drinking water.
The small village hydrants connected to the fire pond do not provide
adequate pressure to rapidly fill the pumper trucks.
We have discussed various ways in which this system could be better
pressurized or water more easily drawn from the pond into pumper trucks.
Our existing water line to The Utilities Department recognizes
the enormous contributions of Karen Hoedtke who retired this year and we are now
actively working with Paul Bartels, our new Village and Utility office staff as
he learns the ropes. The Committee continues to meet
regularly to try to assure the fiscal integrity and the ongoing function of your
Utilities and to try to plan for an affordable future.
We thank you for paying your bills on time.
We owe a debt of thanks to Superintendent Dick McElhaney who brings
uncommon commonsense to his job, to Fernie Barton who daily oversees the
function of the wastewater treatment plant, and to Bill Paige who installs and
reads meters year in and year out and knows where all the pipes lie beneath the
ground. Respectfully submitted, David D. Crofoot, Chairman
The
Safety Committee The Safety Committee is an ad hoc committee formed at the request of the Overseers. The main responsibilities of the Safety Committee are the securing of the lifeguard and the summer safety officer(s). The Committee also works on raising awareness of potential safety hazards. A new Lifeguard was in place and Police Chief Sal Demeo and Joan Demeo were rehired as Bayside Safety Officers. The
Committee has been working with the Town of Up-dated safety notices and signs were posted in prominent places.
The Committee is pleased that most residents have heeded the advice of First Responders to have a house number displayed. Submitted by Peter R. Allen, Chair
Village Agent The work of the Village Agent is year round and a busy job. It starts at the beginning of the year with mid winter problems such as the Sewer Pump House Freeze and the Freezing over of Catch Basins. He works to identify and fix these problems so they won’t happen in the future. Then there’s the task of keeping the roads plowed and sanded for the safety of our year round residents. Spring and summer brings me into another phase of my job; cleaning up winter’s mess on the roads and parks, put Boat and Swim Floats into the water, installing meters and turning on water services for the summer residents, keeping the parks mowed and maintained, collect garbage twice a week. Start maj |
