hard deadlines

The policy subcommittee of the Portsmouth School Committee met this afternoon to consider a new school yearbook policy. While I guess it wasn't technically an open meeting, I showed up and they didn't kick me out. That said, nothing is obviously final until reviewed and approved by the full School Committee.

Attending were SC members Sylvia Wedge, Marge Levesque, and Doug Wilkie. Others included Superintendent Susan Lusi and PHS Principal Robert Littlefield, as well as the yearbook advisor and student editor. On the table was a proposed policy to deal with the contents of the yearbook. Senior portraits — location of the well-known Patrick Agin sword photo — received special attention, with a policy stating in part:

[A]ll senior portraits shall be of the student only with a traditional indoor or outdoor background. No props, instruments, pets, athletic equipment, hobby items, vehicles, or other items shall be allowed in the photographs. Clothing shall be modest and free of slogans and/or political expressions and such clothing shall be in conformance with the School District's dress code. References to items violative of school rules including but not limited to display of firearms, weapons, drugs, tobacco, alcohol or gambling shall be prohibited. The yearbook staff reserves the right to edit, crop or resize photographs submitted." — Section III A

Marge Levesque voiced concern and probed on the need for a policy that "rules out all props," but the consensus was, given recent history, it was safest to be broad and to include the advertising section of the book as well. "The commissioner recognized that we had legitimate authority to make decisions on content," said Littlefield, "The problem was that it was arbitrary. The quote was, 'You say you have zero tolerance, but you can buy tolerance in the advertising section.'"

Doug Wilkie wanted to know why the younger generation was going to hell [Oops, can I say hell?] in a handbasket. "Whatever happened to a formal picture? Young ladies in appropriate clothing. Young men with ties. To look like a graduate, not something that has nothing to do with graduating. There's too much accentuation on the rights of students. We were told, 'You want to be in the yearbook you wear this.'"

After considerable discussion and review of past yearbooks to judge just how widespread the problems with the policy might be, the yearbook editor concluded, "There's not enough in there that it would make a difference. The current class would rather go with no props than go through this again." Littlefield concurred: "At the expense of saying, 'Sorry about your trombone,' we avoid the need to pick and choose."

I suspect that the version I saw today will be pretty close to what gets reported out of committee. And while I do feel bad for the musicians and the pet lovers, it at least seems like a consistent, even-handed policy. I'll just keep paying my ACLU dues, because by the time Jack's a senior, I fully expect he'll find a way to violate whatever they cook up by then. ("What? They won't allow anti-DRM code to run in our Senior avatars? To the virtual barricades!")

Portsmouth has a history, going back to the early 80s, of successfully dodging the question of what to do with wastewater. In the past eight years, the town has done 3 studies, which reached contradictory conclusions about whether sewers were necessary in the North end of town, or whether upgraded septic systems would work. There has even been skepticism — some was voiced tonight, by responsible people — about whether a problem even existed.

I'll be blunt about this: I'm not a blogger sniping from the sidelines on this one. Our Gormley Ave house, which has been in my family for 3 generations and which I intend to die in, sits in the Island Park zone of which the DEM representative said tonight, "It's pretty clear. For a long-term solution, you're looking at sewers."

Now I hold myself to the same standards as I do others: I will do the right thing, even if that costs me money. And the money being talked about ranges from substantial (2-3k for a sewer hookup) to staggering (25k for a state-of-the-art septic system.) But there's an eerie echo of the school funding dilemma here: the whole town benefits from clean water; should those who, by accident of geography, live in low-lying regions be forced to shoulder the entire cost for keeping all our beaches free from fecal coliform? (In tonight's performance, the role of Brooke will be played by Island Park.)

The Council chewed on the question for 3 hours tonight, hearing from representatives of their wastewater committee (who raised the question of why the Town is responsible for wastewater in the first place, rather than the state), Larry Fitzmorris, who spoke with notable restraint and actually made sensible points about avoiding cost overruns in any bond issue, Mike Schrader, the consultant from Woodward & Curran, who did the most recent study, "All the studies started with pre-digested solutions" (sewer v. septic, rather than starting clean slate), and Angelo Leverto of the DEM.

Leverto was at the podium for some time, and spoke articulately about the need to do something, recommending a robust "facility plan" as a first step. "Wastewater management districts are beautiful in the right location, sewers are beautiful in the right location. What matters is your lot sizes, your soil types, your water table elevation. Engineers like to be conservative. A facility plan should lead to a core conclusion and recommended actions."

In fact, the state is quite willing to help with the facility plan. Jay Manning of the RI Clean Water Finance Agency explained to the council that there are 1% loans of up to 150k to finance this kind of work.

Karen Gleason raised a question about sewering leading to an increase in density. Town Admin Bob Driscoll noted that this was an opportunity to "step back and look at the measure of density that's appropriate," and Schrader suggested that you "control growth by zoning, not by sewer."

Town Planner Bob Gilstein had a handout for the Council on Island Park and its crabbed, gerrymandered lots. Many houses, he noted, actually sit on part of multi-lot parcels. According to figures he quoted, a fully sewered Park could conceivably see a buildout of between 30 and 90 percent, and the council discussed whether it would be possible to change the zoning to, for example, consolidate contiguous lots where a residence occupied only one lot to prevent such expansion.

Bottom line: the final report from Woodward & Curran will arrive in March, and then will begin the process of figuring out next steps, whether through a facility plan or some other framework to help the Council and the town finally engage on this.

"Is there any point to which you wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
      — Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze

It was a short meeting tonight, as these things go -- the school committee spent a scant three hours grilling architect Louis Turoddo, engineers from Edwards & Kelsey, and representatives of ABC Construction about the heating, septic line, and punch list items on the nearly-final Portsmouth High School gym. At issue were two outstanding invoices, one for about 40k, one for 13. When all was said and done, the committee was satisfied with the answers they heard and paid the smaller one.

The main bone of contention was the heating system, which failed at the first cold snap. One of the ABC guys explained it:

"There was nothing functionally wrong with the physical heating system installation, but the electric motor and pulleys in the units were not correct. This was only determined after trying every thing. When the unit ran for a period of time, the motor would trip off on safety to prevent overheating. What needed to be done, per manufacturer, was that the belts and pulleys needed to be changed. This was built to spec, but we have no idea if they built it wrong. It was only once we had this long running period of time that we found the motors could not handle the load. They gave us part numbers, we changed all belts and pulleys, and the problem has been solved. The system is running quiet, holding at 70 degrees. In my 30 years, i have never once had a problem with that manufacturer. Never had this kind of mistake. Don't know if we'll ever find why it was built that way. But as soon as we changed them, it was immediately dealt with."

There is a separate issue, the cold temperatures in the boys and girls locker rooms. ABC said:

"It has to do with the placement of the room sensor -- room that was chosen has no effect. It was put in a protected area, in a room with an interior wall, the booster's room. The room doesn't have near the loss of the locker room with an uninsulated exterior wall." It was, ABC said, placed where they were directed to put it.

Terri Cortvriend asked about testing and balancing the system, the process of ajusting airflow to optimize delivery. While the contention was that the requirement had been waived in construction, ABC readily admitted they couldn't find a paper trail, and they agreed to perform this adjustment at their expense.

The mechanical engineer from Edwards & Kelsey agreed this was needed to deal with the temperature variations, but stressed that this was not a failure, like the belts and pulleys.

"The unit got delivered as specified. In design, we do a calcuation of the duct flow, and it's never the same as what gets installed. It's construction, that's what happens. You do a testing and balancing. If that had happened at the end of construction, we wouldn't be sitting here. It's very common thing. It's very normal. It's a normal adjustment under testing and balancing."

Some remaining rancor about who should have done the testing and balancing notwithstanding, things were worked out. The setpoint on the main gym will be moved down, and the locker rooms set higher.

I quote this at some length as a way of getting back to the bit about the dog in the night. Larry Fitzmorris was sitting there the entire time, and when the meeting was opened to public comment, and Chair Sylvia Wedge asked him if he wished to speak, he declined.

I found this most curious.

At the last School Committee meeting, PCC, Inc. President Larry Fitzmorris had this to say:

"I have considerable experience in high technology integration systems. These people did two things wrong: they did not check, and they did not integrate once installed. The system has not been integrated, and someone has failed to do their job. Two people are responsible: The architect and ABC for the subcontractor."

As to checking, they did. The belt failure was a latent problem exposed by the extended cold snap. Now perhaps by a generous stretch of imagination, one could construe "integration" to mean testing and balancing, but I don't think that's a common sense use of the word. So there are two possibilities: Everyone at this meeting, from the architect, to the MEs, to the builders, was flat-out lying, or last week, Larry Fitzmorris was talking out his ass.

He had the opportunity to get up tonight and tell everyone off, and he's no shrinking violet. So let's just remember, if he gets up in a meeting from now on to talk about the gym, he had his chance to duke it out on the facts, and he passed without so much as a quiet bark.

Sal and Chris Carceller have put together a letter of support for the Town Council's proposed revision to the charter to replace the "Tent Meeting" with regular all-day voting. Sal is the citizen who got this all started, their letter makes great sense, and we need to give the Town Council the support they need to move ahead with putting this on the ballot.

Take a minute to download, print, and mail. Do it now. Let's not go through another Tent Meeting. From the Carcellers's site:

ATTENTION PORTSMOUTH RESIDENTS:

If your answer is YES to these questions, support the proposed charter amendment to change our "tent meeting" process. Click below to view, print and mail a letter to our Town Council in support of the proposed charter change.

Visit their page and download the letter.