Published in the Current
For the first time in eight years, Cape Elizabeth property owners will have their land and buildings assessed by the town for tax purposes.
Many homes will see higher assessments, though Town Assessor Matt Sturgis said he expects some property values to remain unchanged and others to decrease.
“We’ll try to bring properties in Cape Elizabeth up to full market value,” he said.
At the Town Council meeting Feb. 11, Sturgis outlined the plan for the reassessment. The project will begin in mid-March and continue through the spring, summer and fall. Data will be compiled by May or June 2003,
and adjustment hearings will be scheduled for property owners who want to correct errors on their assessments. In late July 2003, the assessments will be fixed and tax bills should go out in the first week of August 2003, Sturgis said.
Assessors will be knocking on doors around town asking to look through homes, to check for improvements like finished basements or other internal modifications that would affect value. If no one is home, assessors will be
inspecting land and building exteriors and attempting to schedule return visits to see inside homes.
Sturgis said homeowners are not required to permit assessors into their homes or onto their property, but if they don’t allow them in, the law says the owners give up their right to appeal the amount of an assessment.
“The hardest part of the whole project is determining the land values,” he said.
Some types of property may see bigger increases than others, Sturgis said. For example, the assessed value of most shorefront property in 1999 was about 65 percent of the market value for those properties.
But by 2001, Sturgis said, the market value had increased so that the assessment was about 44 percent of market value.
“It’s a pretty significant drop,” Sturgis said.
Lower-value homes may see less change than some of the higher-end homes in town, he said. And newly built homes are unlikely to change much either, Sturgis said, since those were assessed when they were built and have had little time to change.
Sturgis noted that there are two parts to property tax bills: the assessment value and the tax rate, which is set by the Town Council. He also said exemptions for homesteads or veteran status will continue and residents do not need to reapply for them.
He said any residents with questions or concerns should call his office at 799-1619, though he said he won’t be able to answer the question on every resident’s lips: “What will my assessment value be?”
Thursday, February 14, 2002
Monday, February 11, 2002
Fairchild responds to marketplace shift, moves to LVDS
Published in Interface Tech News
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine ‹ Reacting to the increased prevalence of low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) as a device-communication protocol, Fairchild Semiconductor is now manufacturing a high-speed crosspoint switch for use as a building block of more complex devices.
"Our role on this is low functionality, high performance," said Paul Kierstead, Fairchild's interface marketing director.
Fairchild spun out of Santa Clara, Calif.-based National Semiconductor five years ago and aimed for the niche of simple, high-performance components to be used as elements of a wide variety of electronic equipment.
Getting data moving at higher rates between devices in networking equipment is an important factor in expanding overall throughput.
With the older transistor-transistor logic (TTL) bus technology, in which data is broadcast to all devices on the bus, Kierstead said, "You've got to get wider to get faster."
LVDS, by contrast, operates over pairs of wires directly connecting components. The receiver looks at the difference between the two signals, allowing for noise to be eliminated from the transmission. While it does require two wires where before one would suffice, Kierstead said, it can reach speeds of 622 megabits per second, as compared with 64-bit bus speeds.
Fairchild's new switch converts between TTL and LVDS, Kierstead said, allowing manufacturers to choose the best mix of technologies for their purposes. "It really begins to tie the signaling level issues together," he said.
The crosspoint nature of the switch improves its versatility, he said. "It allows you to have multiple inputs that are switchable and routable to multiple outputs," Kierstead said.
With only two ports, it is small, but faster and easier to manage than some of its larger competitors, which get as big as 128 pairs in and out, Kierstead said.
"This is the building block of the crosspoint switch," he said. Fairchild will start from this base, he added, and move to larger arrays of switches with additional functionality. He noted that the company plans to move into packet-oriented switches, as well.
Fairchild is also working on optimizing power consumption, and sees that area as a major opportunity for growth.
Analyst Charles Mantel, vice president of Mountain View, Calif.-based Selantek, said Fairchild seems to be holding up well.
"Nobody's had a great time of it," Mantel said, but Fairchild is not doing as badly as some of its competitors. "They went less downhill than many companies," he said.
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine ‹ Reacting to the increased prevalence of low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) as a device-communication protocol, Fairchild Semiconductor is now manufacturing a high-speed crosspoint switch for use as a building block of more complex devices.
"Our role on this is low functionality, high performance," said Paul Kierstead, Fairchild's interface marketing director.
Fairchild spun out of Santa Clara, Calif.-based National Semiconductor five years ago and aimed for the niche of simple, high-performance components to be used as elements of a wide variety of electronic equipment.
Getting data moving at higher rates between devices in networking equipment is an important factor in expanding overall throughput.
With the older transistor-transistor logic (TTL) bus technology, in which data is broadcast to all devices on the bus, Kierstead said, "You've got to get wider to get faster."
LVDS, by contrast, operates over pairs of wires directly connecting components. The receiver looks at the difference between the two signals, allowing for noise to be eliminated from the transmission. While it does require two wires where before one would suffice, Kierstead said, it can reach speeds of 622 megabits per second, as compared with 64-bit bus speeds.
Fairchild's new switch converts between TTL and LVDS, Kierstead said, allowing manufacturers to choose the best mix of technologies for their purposes. "It really begins to tie the signaling level issues together," he said.
The crosspoint nature of the switch improves its versatility, he said. "It allows you to have multiple inputs that are switchable and routable to multiple outputs," Kierstead said.
With only two ports, it is small, but faster and easier to manage than some of its larger competitors, which get as big as 128 pairs in and out, Kierstead said.
"This is the building block of the crosspoint switch," he said. Fairchild will start from this base, he added, and move to larger arrays of switches with additional functionality. He noted that the company plans to move into packet-oriented switches, as well.
Fairchild is also working on optimizing power consumption, and sees that area as a major opportunity for growth.
Analyst Charles Mantel, vice president of Mountain View, Calif.-based Selantek, said Fairchild seems to be holding up well.
"Nobody's had a great time of it," Mantel said, but Fairchild is not doing as badly as some of its competitors. "They went less downhill than many companies," he said.
Thursday, February 7, 2002
YMCA asks: Is Scarborough a good home?
Published in the Current
It will be months before Scarborough knows if it is a good match for the Y, and if so, years before anything gets built, organizers and Y officials said.
But within two months, Y organizers could be asking town residents for as much as $300,000 to further develop the project.
According to Dave Thompson, executive director of the Greater Portland YMCA, it will be at least six weeks before a study of Scarborough’s feasibility as a host community for a YMCA will be complete, and another six weeks or so before the analysis of that information is completed by the national Yorganization.
If a Y is approved, supporters will be looking for between $250,000 and $300,000 to offer some Y services in town, and to begin planning a capital campaign that could take two years to kick off, and which could last as long as five years.
Two representatives from the national YMCA office were in Scarborough this week conducting interviews with community leaders, including Town Manager Ron Owens and members of the volunteer group that approached the Y to bring a facility to town.
Those being interviewed had been identified by members of the community as people who know the town, and who could potentially help gather support for a Y, if one were to be located here.
The study is examining the fund-raising prospects as well as projecting numbers of annual members. It also looks at the size of the community it would serve – beyond just the town limits of Scarborough – and need for the services a Y could provide, such as child care, elder programs and a pool.
Another key criterion is whether there would be additional contributions available each year, to keep the organization going. “A well-run YMCA typically generates about 20 percent of its income from contributions,” Thompson said.
The survey will be complete in another few weeks, after which the national Y organization will look at the information and issue a report on whether the project should go forward.
Thompson said that aside from saying just “yes” or “no,” the report could include analysis of specific risks, such as the high household turnover in Scarborough.
And then the preparation for a major fund-raising project would begin. “We wouldn’t be ready for a capital campaign for two or three years,” Thompson said. But the momentum is already building, according to Mike Harrison, a representative of the national Y organization who coordinates projects in Maine and New Hampshire.
YMCAs built in Maine tend to cost between the $9 million spent for a new Y in Camden and the smaller $4.5 million building in Bath, Harrison said. Both the Camden and Bath buildings have a small, therapeutic pool and a larger, eight-lane lap pool, he said.
In the meantime, Thompson said, the Cumberland County YMCA could start offering programs in borrowed or rented space, like church basements or school gymnasiums.
When it came to putting up a building, Thompson said, groundwork laid now with the town will prove useful. “There has to be a strong relationship with the town,” he said.
To that end, he and other Y professionals have spoken with Owens and Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, with positive interaction.
“They’re very receptive to the idea,” Thompson said. “Having them support the idea just makes things work so much better.”
Thompson stressed that the process is designed to be objective and examine the realistic possibilities of success for a Y in Scarborough. “We want to take this very seriously, but not let emotions get carried away here,” he said.
It will be months before Scarborough knows if it is a good match for the Y, and if so, years before anything gets built, organizers and Y officials said.
But within two months, Y organizers could be asking town residents for as much as $300,000 to further develop the project.
According to Dave Thompson, executive director of the Greater Portland YMCA, it will be at least six weeks before a study of Scarborough’s feasibility as a host community for a YMCA will be complete, and another six weeks or so before the analysis of that information is completed by the national Yorganization.
If a Y is approved, supporters will be looking for between $250,000 and $300,000 to offer some Y services in town, and to begin planning a capital campaign that could take two years to kick off, and which could last as long as five years.
Two representatives from the national YMCA office were in Scarborough this week conducting interviews with community leaders, including Town Manager Ron Owens and members of the volunteer group that approached the Y to bring a facility to town.
Those being interviewed had been identified by members of the community as people who know the town, and who could potentially help gather support for a Y, if one were to be located here.
The study is examining the fund-raising prospects as well as projecting numbers of annual members. It also looks at the size of the community it would serve – beyond just the town limits of Scarborough – and need for the services a Y could provide, such as child care, elder programs and a pool.
Another key criterion is whether there would be additional contributions available each year, to keep the organization going. “A well-run YMCA typically generates about 20 percent of its income from contributions,” Thompson said.
The survey will be complete in another few weeks, after which the national Y organization will look at the information and issue a report on whether the project should go forward.
Thompson said that aside from saying just “yes” or “no,” the report could include analysis of specific risks, such as the high household turnover in Scarborough.
And then the preparation for a major fund-raising project would begin. “We wouldn’t be ready for a capital campaign for two or three years,” Thompson said. But the momentum is already building, according to Mike Harrison, a representative of the national Y organization who coordinates projects in Maine and New Hampshire.
YMCAs built in Maine tend to cost between the $9 million spent for a new Y in Camden and the smaller $4.5 million building in Bath, Harrison said. Both the Camden and Bath buildings have a small, therapeutic pool and a larger, eight-lane lap pool, he said.
In the meantime, Thompson said, the Cumberland County YMCA could start offering programs in borrowed or rented space, like church basements or school gymnasiums.
When it came to putting up a building, Thompson said, groundwork laid now with the town will prove useful. “There has to be a strong relationship with the town,” he said.
To that end, he and other Y professionals have spoken with Owens and Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, with positive interaction.
“They’re very receptive to the idea,” Thompson said. “Having them support the idea just makes things work so much better.”
Thompson stressed that the process is designed to be objective and examine the realistic possibilities of success for a Y in Scarborough. “We want to take this very seriously, but not let emotions get carried away here,” he said.
Cape planning $5-million-plus school renovations
Published in the Current
The Cape Elizabeth School Board and Town Council officially discussed for the first time this past week the construction and renovation projects slated for the town’s schools – a project estimated to cost between $5 and $6 million.
Councilors will be asked to approve a plan that would have working beginning at both Pond Cove and the high school in the summer of 2003.
And though funds have yet to be approved, and plans are not yet even in draft form, architect Bob Howe, of HKTA in Portland, has been visiting the Cape Elizabeth schools to explore the buildings and learn from school staff about issues that should be addressed during the renovation.
The school renovation has as its ultimate goal the grouping of grades together, with kindergarten through fourth grade at Pond Cove, fifth through eighth grades at the Middle School, and grades nine through 12 at the high school, Howe said.
Right now, the kindergarten is in the high school, occupying space that will be needed in coming years. To keep the grades together in the future, Howe said, the kindergarten needs a new home.
“That has a domino effect,” Howe said. More classroom space is needed at Pond Cove to accommodate the kindergarten, and additional renovations will
be done to the high school as well. At minimum, the classrooms now serving the kindergarten will need to be updated for teaching high school students.
Howe and Marie Prager, a member of the School Board and chair of its Building Committee, said it is about time for the 33-year-old school building to be renovated anyway, though it appears to be in good shape for its age.
Howe is talking to teachers and administrators at the high school to learn about their concerns and recommendations for the work.
During a recent walk-through at the high school, Howe said there are some basic issues, like making sure windows don’t leak.
And there is definitely a need for improvements to the science classrooms, including adding another physics classroom, so the school will have two.
The existing science classrooms need to be reconfigured and have better access to sinks and other facilities for lab work, as well as being adaptable for use as lecture space.
But in other areas of the school, some teachers are fine with the space they have, while others want more space or a different configuration. The language teachers, for example, are happy with the amount of space they have, but would prefer it not be split across two floors of the school, Howe said.
There is also need for at least one additional computer room, Howe said, and some teachers have asked him for a space for students to congregate.
Other requests have included space for one-on-one work and small group activities, Howe said.
And some issues are related to changes in educational methods since the school was built. For example, the cafeteria was built to handle fewer students at one time than are currently using the room. To provide a nicer eating place without significant changes to the class schedule will require a larger cafeteria, Howe said.
“Students are eating in the halls,” he said.
The music stage and gym floor are also getting examined. The gym can only be sanded once more before the floor needs to be replaced. And the wood is laid directly on concrete.
“It’s hard on players’ legs,” Howe said. But a replacement floor would raise the floor level about three inches, causing problems at the gym doors. Locker rooms, too, need work, with better ventilation and aesthetic improvements that would make people more likely to use them, Howe said.
The front entry to the high school also needs attention. The slope from the parking lot up to the doors is steeper than the Maine Human Rights Act allows. That act adopts the standards of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act for buildings in Maine, Howe said.
Parking on the site is an issue as well, Howe and Prager said. One possible location for additional parking spaces is the flat grassy area behind the building, which is now used informally for extra parking, especially for sporting events.
The building’s infrastructure also needs attention, though fortunately not much of the major systems. “If we had to redo the entire mechanical systems in here, I don’t think the town could afford it,” Howe said.
But some updating of the air circulation system and additional plumbing may be needed, as well as telecommunications wiring, to put phones in each classroom, for example.
Prager stressed that this process is just beginning. After Howe has met with the groups at the high school, he will report to the Building Committee, which will work with him to figure out what work needs to be done and sort out priorities and costs for the projects.
Also in the early planning phase is the Pond Cove construction. The work at the two schools is expected to cost between $5 million and $6 million, Prager said. A final figure should be available by the end of the school year, she said.
The Cape Elizabeth School Board and Town Council officially discussed for the first time this past week the construction and renovation projects slated for the town’s schools – a project estimated to cost between $5 and $6 million.
Councilors will be asked to approve a plan that would have working beginning at both Pond Cove and the high school in the summer of 2003.
And though funds have yet to be approved, and plans are not yet even in draft form, architect Bob Howe, of HKTA in Portland, has been visiting the Cape Elizabeth schools to explore the buildings and learn from school staff about issues that should be addressed during the renovation.
The school renovation has as its ultimate goal the grouping of grades together, with kindergarten through fourth grade at Pond Cove, fifth through eighth grades at the Middle School, and grades nine through 12 at the high school, Howe said.
Right now, the kindergarten is in the high school, occupying space that will be needed in coming years. To keep the grades together in the future, Howe said, the kindergarten needs a new home.
“That has a domino effect,” Howe said. More classroom space is needed at Pond Cove to accommodate the kindergarten, and additional renovations will
be done to the high school as well. At minimum, the classrooms now serving the kindergarten will need to be updated for teaching high school students.
Howe and Marie Prager, a member of the School Board and chair of its Building Committee, said it is about time for the 33-year-old school building to be renovated anyway, though it appears to be in good shape for its age.
Howe is talking to teachers and administrators at the high school to learn about their concerns and recommendations for the work.
During a recent walk-through at the high school, Howe said there are some basic issues, like making sure windows don’t leak.
And there is definitely a need for improvements to the science classrooms, including adding another physics classroom, so the school will have two.
The existing science classrooms need to be reconfigured and have better access to sinks and other facilities for lab work, as well as being adaptable for use as lecture space.
But in other areas of the school, some teachers are fine with the space they have, while others want more space or a different configuration. The language teachers, for example, are happy with the amount of space they have, but would prefer it not be split across two floors of the school, Howe said.
There is also need for at least one additional computer room, Howe said, and some teachers have asked him for a space for students to congregate.
Other requests have included space for one-on-one work and small group activities, Howe said.
And some issues are related to changes in educational methods since the school was built. For example, the cafeteria was built to handle fewer students at one time than are currently using the room. To provide a nicer eating place without significant changes to the class schedule will require a larger cafeteria, Howe said.
“Students are eating in the halls,” he said.
The music stage and gym floor are also getting examined. The gym can only be sanded once more before the floor needs to be replaced. And the wood is laid directly on concrete.
“It’s hard on players’ legs,” Howe said. But a replacement floor would raise the floor level about three inches, causing problems at the gym doors. Locker rooms, too, need work, with better ventilation and aesthetic improvements that would make people more likely to use them, Howe said.
The front entry to the high school also needs attention. The slope from the parking lot up to the doors is steeper than the Maine Human Rights Act allows. That act adopts the standards of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act for buildings in Maine, Howe said.
Parking on the site is an issue as well, Howe and Prager said. One possible location for additional parking spaces is the flat grassy area behind the building, which is now used informally for extra parking, especially for sporting events.
The building’s infrastructure also needs attention, though fortunately not much of the major systems. “If we had to redo the entire mechanical systems in here, I don’t think the town could afford it,” Howe said.
But some updating of the air circulation system and additional plumbing may be needed, as well as telecommunications wiring, to put phones in each classroom, for example.
Prager stressed that this process is just beginning. After Howe has met with the groups at the high school, he will report to the Building Committee, which will work with him to figure out what work needs to be done and sort out priorities and costs for the projects.
Also in the early planning phase is the Pond Cove construction. The work at the two schools is expected to cost between $5 million and $6 million, Prager said. A final figure should be available by the end of the school year, she said.
Tuesday, February 5, 2002
ManageSoft finds reseller for government contracts offering
Published in Interface Tech News
NASHUA, N.H. ‹ In a deal that may bring in an extra $1 million in the first quarter of this year, ManageSoft has formed a partnership with San Antonio, Texas-based CRV to market ManageSoft's network-aware software inventory and license-monitoring products to U.S. government agencies.
"You've got to get on the GSA list to be able to sell to the government," said William Davenport, ManageSoft's marketing communications manager.
The process of getting on the General Services Administration's approved contracts list is time consuming, but can be avoided by selling products through a company already on the list. Although government agencies can buy items from companies not on a GSA contract, it requires extensive paperwork.
According to Davenport, CRV has a GSA contract and a strong presence in government and corporate sales environments, making a partnership attractive to ManageSoft. CRV plans to integrate ManageSoft products into the services it already offers governmental and corporate clients, Davenport said.
"Any company that is going to be successful needs to have partnerships," Davenport said.
The CRV deal is not ManageSoft's only such agreement, and sales have been climbing since the Oct. 1 release of ManageSoft's latest software package, ManageSoft 6.0. The company changed its name from Open Software Associates and the name of its product from NetDeploy Global at that time.
IDC senior research analyst Fred Broussard said that ManageSoft will be competing with well-entrenched vendors, but the technical superiority of the company's software should help them break in, along with deals like the one with CRV, offering "partners who can help deploy new software throughout the enterprise."
With companies demanding faster return on investment and speedier software deployment times, Broussard said, tools like ManageSoft 6.0 can be very helpful to consultants brought in from the outside to make new software installations work. With partnerships like CRV's, he said, ManageSoft should be able to make a strong showing.
NASHUA, N.H. ‹ In a deal that may bring in an extra $1 million in the first quarter of this year, ManageSoft has formed a partnership with San Antonio, Texas-based CRV to market ManageSoft's network-aware software inventory and license-monitoring products to U.S. government agencies.
"You've got to get on the GSA list to be able to sell to the government," said William Davenport, ManageSoft's marketing communications manager.
The process of getting on the General Services Administration's approved contracts list is time consuming, but can be avoided by selling products through a company already on the list. Although government agencies can buy items from companies not on a GSA contract, it requires extensive paperwork.
According to Davenport, CRV has a GSA contract and a strong presence in government and corporate sales environments, making a partnership attractive to ManageSoft. CRV plans to integrate ManageSoft products into the services it already offers governmental and corporate clients, Davenport said.
"Any company that is going to be successful needs to have partnerships," Davenport said.
The CRV deal is not ManageSoft's only such agreement, and sales have been climbing since the Oct. 1 release of ManageSoft's latest software package, ManageSoft 6.0. The company changed its name from Open Software Associates and the name of its product from NetDeploy Global at that time.
IDC senior research analyst Fred Broussard said that ManageSoft will be competing with well-entrenched vendors, but the technical superiority of the company's software should help them break in, along with deals like the one with CRV, offering "partners who can help deploy new software throughout the enterprise."
With companies demanding faster return on investment and speedier software deployment times, Broussard said, tools like ManageSoft 6.0 can be very helpful to consultants brought in from the outside to make new software installations work. With partnerships like CRV's, he said, ManageSoft should be able to make a strong showing.
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