BERLIN — During this week’s Berlin Mayor and Council meeting, several updates were provided, including the status of a new library on Harrison Avenue was discussed and the search for a new director of Economic and Community Development

No Major Obstacles

For New Library

After a preliminary review by the town and the State Highway Administration, a proposed Berlin library to be located on Harrison Ave. looks to be in order from a design standpoint.

“[The library board] had a concept plan, two different versions, no architecture shown but outlines of the site plan,” said Engelhart. “They anticipate maybe a year from now that they would be starting construction … There were no major issues with the State Highway people.”

There were some initial questions about how Harrison Ave. would handle new traffic, but the impact is not expected to be significant enough to generate any issues. Parking should be plentiful as well.

“Their site does call for 60 parking spaces which might help us when we have events,” said Engelhart.

The library board may have a basic timeline at this point, but there is still the matter of what architect will design the library to consider. The board has already picked its choice, but the Worcester County Commissioners are still deliberating on whether the contract needs to be put out to bid or if it would be acceptable to simply hire the board’s favored architect.

No matter who is chosen as architect, the council is optimistic about the new library being better designed than the current one.

Department Head

Search Narrowed

From an original list of almost a dozen applicants, Berlin’s Human Resource Department has trimmed down those eligible to replace departing Michael Day as director of the town’s growing Economic and Community Development Department to a pair of candidates.

“I’ve gone from 11 candidates to two. Out of the 11 that applied, two were qualified,” said Jeff Fleetwood, director of Human Resources.

The two remaining candidates, one of whom is from Maryland and the other from the New England area, went through further vetting Thursday by several town department heads and administration as well as the Main Street coordinator.

“Going through the process, my hopes are that we can refer these folks to you at an open session on [Oct.] 14 as well, in an executive session prior to your open meeting,” Fleetwood told the council.

Solar Interest On Rise

A number of private homes in Berlin have started to install solar energy panels to make use of the renewable power source. The Electric Utility Department just installed a net meter on one such private solar array on Upshur Lane last week with a few more expected.

“They have a 5.7kw solar system that they installed, and we have two others that are going to be coming online in the next two to three weeks,” said Tim Lawrence, director of Electric. “One is over in Decatur Farms and the other is off of Tingle Road in that area.”

While on the subject of how the environment can affect energy, Lawrence also told the council that his department is in the process of placing a lightning protection system across Berlin. The town has been on the receiving end of numerous lightning-related blackouts over the past couple of years and Lawrence hopes the new system will combat that.

“… we started installing some lightening protection stands in various locations in town,” he said. “We’ve had issues with thunderstorms so we started these grounding systems, there are four of them for every mile of line, and we started installing them throughout town for protection from lightening.”

All of the grounders should be in place within the next two months.