Each week, City Manager Tom Aspell tries to turn Concord’s financial files into a paint-by-numbers project, but gets confused because there are so many numbers. So he just finger paints a city memo for us instead.
Weight watchers
Don’t break the roads
Starting March 17, load limit signs were being posted on various streets throughout Concord, Aspell writes. The signs were placed using a unicycle to guarantee that sign placers didn’t exceed any of the limits.
The load limit is set at 9 tons – or roughly a whole lot of unicycles – and is done to protect the streets from any potential damage from heavy vehicles during the spring thaw. Roads must protect themselves from things like identify theft.
The load limit postings will remain in effect until late spring to allow time for the road temperatures to adjust. Late spring is due anytime after actual spring.
Visit concordnh.gov/documentcenter/view/1998 for a complete list of streets with weight restrictions.
Starring Dylan McDermott
Not that one, though
City employee Dylan McDermott is the most recent winner of the city’s High Five Award, Aspell writes. The award isn’t an actual high five, and McDermott isn’t the actual actor.
The High Five Recognition Program targets city employees who consistently display a positive attitude in their work and to their peers and customers. McDermott is a senior maintenance aide in the General Services Department. He is one of many employees who have tirelessly worked to clear the streets during this persistent winter, for which he nominated himself for the Holy Heck Make It Stop Award.
Recently he rose to the call when a water main break presented itself, presumably in the form of water spraying everywhere. McDermott took over the crew from two supervisors who had already been on duty for 24 hours. He then proceeded to make decisions and calculations – two things we generally avoid – on what turned out to be a very complicated fix, requiring more than 10 fittings, when a normal repair takes one or two. Twenty hours later, McDermott and the team finished the project. McDermott’s dedication and commitment to results make him the perfect recipient for the High Five Award. Dylan received a $25 gift card to Beaver Meadow Golf Course as recognition.
it’s a grave situation
But a positive one
From 1896 through the 1950’s, the Common Ground burial section of Blossom Hill Cemetery was a burial ground for 686 poor people or people without family, Aspell writes. The majority of these graves remain unmarked. As a result, the city has implemented an Adopt-A-Grave program, which provides the opportunity for the public to memorialize and honor someone buried in the Common Ground burial section by making a donation for a grave marker (which is different than other adopt-a-grave programs that require you to feed and change the grave on a regular basis. Diapers are expensive!)
For a $100 donation, the city of Concord, in collaboration with Star Granite Company, will craft and set in a grave marker with the deceased’s name, date of birth and date of death. For more information, contact Cemetery Administrator Jill McDaniel at 225-3911 or via e mail at jmcdaniel@concordnh.gov.
