Town of Lamoine, Maine
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	Administrative Assistant to the Board of Selectmen				Stu Marckoon
	Report for Meeting of April 2, 2020

This has certainly been an interesting two weeks! Closing the town hall has been difficult.  The number of phone calls has been about the same, but doing business has dried up significantly.  The good news on that front is that the staff has been able to maintain social distancing as requested by the Governor’s office.  We are providing the requested services.  The most common service request has been burn permits!  We are able to electronically generate those and e-mail them to the requester.   That’s worked out pretty well. 

We’ve had very few vehicle registrations – people have opted to use the rapid renewal process.  The state has extended registrations that expired after the emergency declaration for 30-days until after the emergency is lifted   Needless to say, revenues are a bit down.

Jennifer and I have been splitting time in the suddenly not very busy office.  She comes in after noon time.  I go home and work on what I can remotely.  Mostly that has been writing the Lamoine Quarterly. 

Your meeting is going to be an experiment, and I’m not very optimistic that it’s going to go off with flying colors.  I’ve set up a zoom account.  You’ve been extended an invitation via e-mail.  You’ll want to set that up ahead of time as the application will need to install on either your computer of cell phone.  The public is also getting an invitation.  I’ve set up the CTV computer so that it can join the meeting and feed the TV channel and the town line streams channel. 

The free Zoom application is for up to 100-people for up to 40-minutes.  I hope that is more than enough time for your meeting – the agenda is very brief.  You will be able to stay in your own home and log in.  Any votes must be taken by roll call, so we’ll need to hear you, not necessarily see you. 

I will have a paper packet for you.  Please let me know individually if you wish for me to deliver, or if you want to pick it up at the town hall.   I will also scan the packet and post it on line.

Minutes March 19, 2020 – They are posted on line – please look them over prior to the meeting for accuracy.

Warrant 22 – This will be tricky to get your signatures on.  I would propose that you vote by roll call on Thursday, then swing by to sign individually on Friday.  There is not a lot on the warrant, but school warrants have not yet come in.  The warrant will be periodically updated on the website and the final version will be up on the 2^nd by Noon. 

Cash & Budget Reports – These will also be updated on the website and the report for that evening will be posted by Noontime.

Tax Acquired Property – I would recommend that we start advertising the two land only pieces that were tax acquired from Peter Sullivan.  He’s made no response by the 30-day deadline that expired on March 21^st.   I’ll draft up an ad.  As far as the Needles Eye Road property, I’ve not heard from USDA recently.  I suspect they’re closed for the COVID-19 pandemic.  My recommendation is that we hold off another month.

Checking Account – Presuming the bank statement is on time, I should have this done and e-mailed prior to the meeting.

Emergency Operations Plan – We started working on this a few meetings ago, then the emergency hit.  I’m not sure where things stand in the editing process – was waiting for input from the board.

Current COVID-19 Status – The emergency declaration you ordered seems to be working well, however it expires April 1^st.  The Governor’s declaration goes longer.  Might I suggest extending the local emergency declaration to coincide with the state’s declaration as far as dates go.   I’ll draft up a declaration to do so.

Broadband Expansion – I sent a communication from Spectrum/Charter via e-mail to the Selectmen and to the Tech Committee.  I also e-mailed Brian and asked him to explore possibly going ahead with a ConnectME grant, but would need action by the Selectmen to proceed I believe.   This looks like a grant from ConnectME would not cost the town anything, potentially.

Lamoine 150! – I believe Jo can give a quick update on what’s not happening.

Lamoine Quarterly – I’ve been working on this at home, and am almost done.  I should be able to complete it this morning at the office and will have e-mailed you a draft for editorial comment.

Public & Selectmen Comments – Given that this is a Zoom meeting and the public is able to log in through our website, this might be an interesting few minutes.  

These are interesting times – I’m not real familiar with how to run a Zoom meeting.  I ask for patience, and please let me know if there are questions or concerns about you being able to log into the meeting.

Stu