Remarks by Nancy Smith
126 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 6
Just looking for opportunities to not be spending money here.
Troy's not here. They had an event. I assume that's not a party. I have broader questions stepping away from the police lot. I support what you're trying to do. It sounds like there's kind of a fire sale on road construction, and if we can take advantage of that and buy what we were going to buy, only to get it on sale now, I'm all for it with a reputable contractor that you've been using, so I support where you're going. Before we make the motion, it sounds like what we have in our packet is not the up-to-date
So let me just finish. So I want to be sure that I understand that and that a piece of the conversation is there's still six figures outstanding. What are we going to do with that? Let me ask you a bigger question. And Amanda, I really appreciate... No, don't be terrified. I really appreciate the perspective you gave us with that background. It was really... This is part of like we finally are getting to see the payoff of the grinding work that you all have been doing and we all have been doing so that we can go there's a plan we're implementing it look there are differences we've got…
So there will always be something that falls off the wagon.
And that's our goal, it seems, is to avoid.
So our goal then is to have no surprises, that we know that these things are happening. Yeah. But it will eventually.
So what I'm hearing is it does make fiscal sense to pave the backlog of the police department. We're just trying to save money where we can. I appreciate the conversation about eventually roads actually do wear out and you need to replace it. So the last piece, and you started to answer me, Mike, is I need to understand what the dollars are that we're finally landing on for the motion.
And then, thank you. The last piece of the conversation, there's that remaining $306,000. Does that sit in time?
I love it. So... When do we need to make a decision on that $306,000? Does that sit there as undrawn down? Sarah made the point about we don't want a bubble because then the rhythm is off. Right.
So we can hold that for right now, but tonight this is the priority for the, we would have to come back like we did tonight on some of our other bond reallocations to go through that process. Can sit for right now. We're paying for it. So we need to be proud of that.
Okay, so when we do a drawdown, we start paying. Okay, so tonight we know the 523 where you want it to be devoted. The 306 will sit until a future meeting looking at the capital investment plan a bit broader. That is the sum total of my questions on this. Thank you very much. Appreciate the information.
Two quick things. It is our job to kick the tires and make sure that we do need to spend the money. I've landed comfortable with where we are with the police department, but that is our role. And also, in addition to the great work we've talked about with Mike and Amanda and Brian, it's Sarah. What I heard, and we didn't really highlight, was you went to Maine DOT and said, hey, how about, and that's going to save us hundreds of thousands of dollars. So thank you for using your existing relationships and your with Maine DOT to bring that forward for us. We all genuinely appreciate that. Thank…
I just want to point out, I think we discussed this last month. We did.
Thank you. I move to authorize the city manager to modify the engineering services agreement with Andrew McCullough Engineering Consultants dated April 25th, 2025 to add construction oversight services for the Merrill Lane public roadway project in an amount not to exceed $67,500, increasing the total contract not to be exceeded amount from $96,650 to $164,150.
And that was page 100 of this evening's agenda.
I have a question for you. The requested motion up on the screen is slightly different than the one printed. Just the content is the same, the language, as recommended by staff, authorized. That one seems to be more thorough than what we've got here.
Did not mean to instill that. But I'm happy to make the motion.
And time for discussion after the motion, of course.
I was going to say I'll make the motion and then go to the discussion, but I feel like we should have the motion here. I move to award the contract for the Merrill Lane extension to RF Jordan for a not to exceed amount of $1,633,545 as recommended by staff and authorize the city manager to execute the contract and related documents. Second. Is second further discussion on the motion council Smith thank you change is happening in Ellsworth and change is hard because first what we see is what we lose before we're able to see what we can gain this is a spectacular example of change can either…
So this one's a keeper. I appreciate the context and the documentation, whether it's the PDF or rented. This is a historic document, I think.
Love us a good binder. Yes, we do. Move to adjourn. Second.
The planning board on the RV moratorium with discussions of how to move forward as any candidate. And then the TIF task force, I have no real details on that one. So I'm going to launch this. Charlie?
One other question you can address as you move forward. Is there, I guess I'd be interested in looking at if we could do options one and two, and if there's value in doing that. I see those as distinct, trying to address specific issues versus the larger scale option.
And maybe related to this part of the conversation it would be helpful for me maybe for other members of the council who are here to better understand when we had this issue before the council there was code speak about maybe there's an existing campground that maybe is going to do an expansion we have no information and so we moved ahead with the one that we've got I'm hearing second and third hand that there actually is something so I love whatever clarity there might be on on that piece that Councilor Lyons is trying to address with Part 2. I don't have enough information to understand…
Have you had conversations? Are you aware of?