Each week, City Manager Tom Aspell gathers all of the employees at City Hall. After setting up an impromptu stage on the front steps, he moderates a debate between all the different city departments. The topic? “What's your favorite thing about Tom Aspell?”
This week, like every week, Tom stopped the debate and declared himself the winner. He gave his closing remarks in the form of this city memo.
Firemen finish course
Graduation day
Three members of the Concord Fire Department completed the Fire Officer I and II Programs at the New Hampshire Fire Academy, Aspell writes. Paramedic lieutenant Stephen Stock, firefighter paramedic Stephen Lorenze, and firefighter Chris Dolloff completed 120 hours of classroom instruction and a substantial amount of time outside of class working on research projects and other class assignments.
check this out
Skate funds donated
Weston Solutions presented a check for $2,500 to the Parks and Recreation Department last week for the operation of the skate house this winter, Aspell writes. This donation will also cover the cost of purchasing new rental skates and a fresh coat of paint inside the building.
a real life saver
CPR device donated
The Concord Fire Department was presented with a new mechanical chest compression device for use during cardiac arrests, Aspell writes. The device has been described by Concord Hospital as “revolutionizing” the way CPR is performed and clinical studies have shown increased survival rates when the device is used. The device was donated by a retired Concord teacher who wanted to thank the city for the opportunity to teach in the schools for over three decades.
check's in the mail
Irene funds en route
The New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has notified the city that it will receive $7,788.22 as the federal share of cost reimbursement for the response to Hurricane Irene last August.
scoreboard!
Green St. gets update
The public property pision of the General Services Department has installed a new scoreboard at the Green Street Community Center. The old scoreboard was more than 20 years old and was not working correctly. The new board cost the city no money, as it was part of the beverage agreement with Coca-Cola.
pitching depth
Audi receives help
The city is pleased to announce that the Friends of the Audi's 2011 “Pitch In” volunteers provided $8,930.25 in maintenance work to scrub and polish the City Auditorium for this busy season. In addition, Pitch-In volunteers purchased room-darkening shades ($1,800) for the reception lobby, enhancing its use as meeting space, and had all the carpets in the theatre steam cleaned ($556.80). Still in the works by the Friends? Upgrading the theatre's electricity; installing picture molding in the reception lobby, enabling its use as a gallery display space; and working with the Correctional Industry Upholstery Shop to refurbish the seats. Many thanks to public properties superintendent Harry Dangora and his crews for assisting the Friends of the Audi with their projects.
In other news, there is a new ticket outlet in town. The UPS Store at 75 S. Main St. now serves as an outlet for tickets to Audi shows. Gibson's Bookstore, Pompanoosuc Mills and Red River Theatres are all acting as Audi ticket outlets this season, too.
power outage
Renewals go offline
Effective Jan. 15, the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles will be discontinuing its COMPASS system. The COMPASS system is the NH-DMV on-line application for motor vehicle registrations that allows inpiduals to renew their motor vehicle registrations by credit card. There were only 14 communities participating in the program and NH-DMV processed slightly over 500 registrations in 2011. Given the low volume of use and the cost to accomplish an upgrade to the system, the state has decided to discontinue the program.
