October 2010
Once again, it has been too long since my last update and I will do my best to post updates on a more frequent basis. In Town news there is quite a bit happening on a number of fronts. First and foremost is the continuing work on the Town's new Emergency Services Facility. Although the foundation and frame are just now being completed, you can get a good idea of what the building will look like when finished. I think it will be a wonderful facility that will fit in nicely with the character of the Town. The facility will include the most modern of technological advances in a wide variety of areas including everything from fire fighting to video conferencing in the town's new community room. The facility is also going to utilize a number of renewable energy elements of most significant is the
geothermal heating / cooling system which utilizes the consistent temperature of the ground to assist in both heating and cooling the building. It is fascinating technology that go a long way to reducing our energy consumption and meshes nicely with our effort to continue to utilize green energy for all municipal purposes. Lastly, the facility is on budget and on schedule thus far and we will continue to work diligently on both of those important fronts.
In other news, the Town is pleased to announce that we are proceeding with our pursuit of the State's green community designation. Although there is only one town on the Cape to achieve this designation and none on either of the islands, Tisbury is hoping to be the first Town to achieve this designation. However, this effort will not be easy as it will take a good amount of hard work to meet the five criteria which is required to gain the designation. Once the designation is achieved the Town then qualifies for a pool of funds made available to only green communities. At last check , there were 35 cities and town across Massachusetts that had qualified and were applying for a little over $10 mill. in grant funds. Obviously, that is a large amount of funds for a small amount of applicants, especially when
you consider the difficult financial times. The funds can then be used for virtually any renewable energy effort in Town from the purchase of renewable energy vehicles to the installation of solar panels on town buildings. It is a fantastic program that I am confident we will be able to participate in. As far as a timeline going forward, I am hoping to have the final piece of this effort on the town meeting warrant for this coming Spring 2011 and will update this blog as the process moves along.
Next, right now the island towns are about to enter into negotiations with Comcast which will most likely result in a contract for the next ten (10) years. The current contract is due to expire this coming June 2011 and the island towns are working together to agree on a new contract before that time expires (Not to worry if that does not occur as service remains the same regardless of whether or not a new contract is in place before that deadline). What is most important in this process is the input from the public. It is critically important that if anyone has any issue with their service with Comcast that those concerns be brought to the attention of the person representing their town in these negotiations. Here in Tisbury our representative is the DPW Director Mr. Fred LaPiana. Another way
to make your concerns known is to come to what is called an ascertainment hearing. It is at this meeting that we want to hear all the problems / concerns our residents have had with Comcast so that the people representing their respective island towns have a clear understanding of the concerns of their constituency going into negotiations. The date /.time for these meetings has not yet been set but we will be sure to heavily publicize the time of these meetings once they are established.
Finally, the town is planning to improve its shellsish mapping system. The town is in the process of creating a map or system of maps to be posted on the town's website in which the public can go to at any time to see what areas of town are open to what type of shellfishing. Up until now we have relied on the Shellfish officer getting the word out as to what areas are open and closed to shellfishing. This is not the best way to communicate this type of information so we decided to find a way to improve this system. The new mapping system will be updated regularly and will give people who are shellfishing the ability to go to the Town's website and look at the map of Tisbury to see what areas of town are open and closed to the specific type of shellfiish they plan to dig for. I am hoping to have the new
maps up within the next few weeks.
That is all for now and as promised I will try and update this section on a more frequent basis in our effort to bring town activities and information to the public.
| 
