Fridays with the Mayor

Mayor Ed Glode discussed some topics that came up at the July 7 Town Council meeting, such as the hiring of two part-time police officers instead of one full-time employee although one of the potential hires would need to be sent to the academy. While the training is the largest expense, it is ultimately more cost effective to hire part-time employees since full-time workers are afforded benefits. “If you’re a full-time police officer and you haven’t been through the academy, you have 12 months to do that. If you’re part time, you have 24 [months]. If this candidate was good, if this person was good, and did us a good job for a year and a half, they’d be worth taking to the academy.” As such, the discussion has been tabled until the next meeting so that the Council can determine the actual cost of sending a police officer to the academy.

Glode is optimistic that the new building to be put up by and for Engineering Associates on land owned by the town will be good for the community. “They’re going to build something that looks good, first of all. And who knows, ten years down the road they may grow and need a bigger facility and now we have an office building available for someone with good paved parking around it.”

The disposal process for that property is set to begin soon. This will give the town some extra money. The town owns several properties in the area due to unique circumstances for each property, such as estate liquidations.

Glode mentioned that the Council is working on various paving projects that are scheduled to happen in the fall — one at the airport, paving around the hangars, and another to pave the roads in town.

With regards to the new landfill transport station, he said that the town will need to get better at recycling in order to have less waste to transport. By 2018, the waste management work will need to be regionalized.

The swimming pool heating and circulation system that had broken on over the weekend was fixed on July 8, and the swim lessons will no longer have to be freezing cold.