NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Public Services and inspection budgets for fiscal 2019 will see little change from this year. 

 

"Other than salary changes, it's very much a level-funded budget," Administrative Officer Michael Canales told the Finance Committee last week. "Last year we did bring on a code enforcer and sealer of weights and measures."

 

The new sealer is awaiting one more certification and that department "will be fully up to speed," he said. 

 

The meeting last Wednesday was the second of four planned by the Finance Committee to review the proposed $44 million fiscal 2019 budget. The committee comprised of Chairman Wayne Wilkinson, Benjamin Lamb and Marie T. Harpin will next look at the McCann Technical School budget and the Public Safety budget this Wednesday; the final review will be of the school budget once that is passed by the School Committee.

 

Lamb asked if inspections was working better with more staff. The department had tried to reduce a position several years ago and then went through a couple health inspectors. 

 

"We're better off now than we were. We were shorthanded for quite a long time," Building Inspector William Meranti said. "We're still shy on the building inspection portion but on the health department side we're fully staffed."

 

The new sealer, Mark Bushee, who previously worked for the Tri-Town Health Department also is doing code enforcement, he said.

 

"We are out there every day looking at problems, dealing with complaints, doing our annual inspections, doing our restaurants," Meranti said. "We're talking about the Building Department but it's all together, inspections services, so there's a lot on our plates."

 

There are good neighborhoods that suddenly have a problem, and other properties that might have been problems but have turned around. The department tries to be proactive but is often reactive, he said.

 

In response to questions, Meranti said some fees are in line with neighboring communities others are laughably inexpensive. 

 

Mayor Thomas Bernard said the city planned to review the fee schedule to target the ones that are wildly out of line. 

 

"These things that are a one-time fee that's pocket-change level should have more stake to it," he said. 

 

Canales said department heads will be queried about fee structures so they can be built into the fiscal 2020 budget. He said the two separate inspection departments will probably be moved into one department.

 

"Eventually when we bring these together under inspection services, it will make it easier than our current setup," he said.

 

The administration is also continuing efforts to right-size the staffing at the transfer station. There are currently three part-time scale operators and one full-time person; next year the plan is to bring up one operator on the weekend. 

 

Last year, there was an attempt to cut back on part-time staff by utilizing someone from the Department of Public Works as a shared post but it didn't work out. 

 

"What we realized from our traffic flow and patterns to get some better control," Canales said. "I've been up there the past three Saturdays and a bunch of weekdays I would go up for a couple hours and take a look."

 

He said there have been some "experimenting" on traffic control. Everyone entering the transfer station on Tuesday through Friday will have to go over the scale. That won't work on Saturday because it so busy so drivers will be directed into a traffic pattern that will allow staff to see the stickers. 

 

"I was up there for two days and caught 13 people without stickers, I was up there Saturday and caught four people without stickers," Canales said. The mayor said he was there for 10 minutes and caught one. 

 

In addition to enforcing sticker usage more closely, the city is considering a day sticker for $6 rather than going through the paperwork of a temporary sticker. 

 

"That way we're not sending people away or backing up the scale filling out paperwork," Canales said.

 

Public Services Commissioner Timothy Lescarbeau explained what appeared to be a large jump in seasonal salaries as the combination of all seasonal workers in one line item. 

 

"Every department had seasonal employee but it was tough [apportioning salary] because we kept moving the around," he said. "So we just pooled them."

 

He said there were no significant changes in the department but some slight adjustments in salary lines. "We still have 24 employees, that hasn't changed," he said. "They're just in different places."

 

Public Services is looking at potential capital projects coming up, such as upgrading the electrical service at the campground, though this is not in the budget. Historic Valley Park has had a number of improvements in recent years, including updating the bathrooms and sewer system, and improving the wifi. Lescarbeau said he would also like to get an endoscopic camera to search water line leaks or infiltration but that it would likely have to wait until fiscal 2020.

 

In response to a question about the old box alarm system, the mayor said the city has been approached by a buyer, an organization looking to remove them and reuse them in an art project. The purchase would require removing all the wiring as well. 

 

Canales said the boxes outlived their usefulness years ago with the advent of cell phones. They have not functioned in years. 

 

The committee also briefly touched on the library budget. Library Director Mindy Hackner explained the programming line item has been going down because the library is doing more innovative and free programming as well as taking advantage of funding through Massachusetts Cultural Council. 

 

She and Canales are continuing to work in scheduling issues. 

 

"We are very happy with this budget," she said. "But I've been caught short several times [on staffing]."

 

The committee also reviewed the updated classification plan, which now includes an S-37 to indicate the special projects coordinator position being filled by Michael Nuvallie. Members questioned the number of salaried classifications and whether they were needed. 

 

"A lot of these don't even matter anymore," Canales said. "Fifty years of history just keeps making this document bigger and bigger."

 

The public services classifications were updated a few years ago and Canales said the salaried list was due for review.