York Town News
From the Manager's Desk
A little of this and some of that...
By Town Manager Rob Yandow
This month's column will be devoted to providing updates on information previously discussed in one manner or another.The first update has to do with the Code Enforcement Office. As most of you will probably remember, I conducted a review of the Code Enforcement Office and, as a result, we implemented a series of improvements to assist the public.
Shortly after the review was completed, Tom James, our primary inspector, underwent heart surgery and has been out of work since the end of May. We hired some temporary personnel to assist with inspections and counter help; however, in late June, Mark Badger, managing code enforcement officer, was stricken with health problems and has been out of work ever since.
Mark has decided that because of his health issues he will not be returning to work for the town. This has increased the workload on an already reduced staff; however, we will get by. I have initiated a process to fill the managing code enforcement officer position and we will move as quickly as is reasonably possible to fill the position. As soon as we can, we will also fill the Shoreland Protection Officer position. Please bear with us in the meantime.
We continue with our pandemic flu planning and are also evaluating our hurricane preparedness. Although the most recent comments by the hurricane experts indicate the hurricane season will not be as severe as originally thought, we will continue our efforts to be as prepared as we can be in the event we find ourselves in, or near, a hurricane's path.
On the pandemic flu side, there is some optimism that an effective vaccine will be developed sooner than had originally been projected by the health experts. Town and school representatives will be attending a county pandemic discussion this week.
We have reached agreement with the Maine Department of Transportation concerning the construction of a new Passaconaway Bridge. While some are disappointed that we could not take more time to explore increasing the scope of the bridge replacement, I am satisfied that MDOT has been as flexible as they can under the circumstances.
Although they originally were not going to put any sidewalks on the bridge until voters approved the town completing a sidewalk project, they later relented and will be putting a five-foot raised sidewalk on the bridge along with sidewalks on each approach to the bridge. They have also agreed to provide a fascia design on the side of the bridge. We will be conducting a meeting soon to discuss what design would be appropriate on the side of the bridge.
Last Thursday the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the Maine Healthy Beaches Program held their annual award ceremony at Long Sands Beach. EPA funds the beach testing program for the state through an annual grant and their award to Maine this year was in the amount of $254,700. I am pleased to report that York was selected to host the event due to our excellent water quality testing results and the town's efforts to protect our beaches.
The next time you are at Ellis Short Sands Park or at the Harbor Beach please look for the green "Big Belly" trash receptacle. The town and Ellis Short Sands Park have each purchased one of these units on an experimental basis. These units are solar powered and are expected to hold three to four times the amount of trash as a conventional 55 gallon drum because of their compaction features. The trash is compacted into a bag and is then sealed, thereby eliminating many of the problems related to overflowing cans or the wind blowing the trash out of the can.
If the experiment is successful, we will be able to reduce the number of trash receptacles over time and will be able to prioritize our pick up schedule due to a transmitted signal, which will be sent when the trash reaches a certain level in the container. Parks and Recreation Director Mike Sullivan came up with this idea after seeing the receptacles in action in other locations.
