all right welcome everybody to the Monday March 18th meeting of the Conway select board at 7 p.m. it will be the joint meeting of the select board and finance committee this meeting is being recorded live by FCAT and on Zoom town website um if for any reason these recordings cease to function we will continue with this meeting live and in person call the meeting to order first item on the agenda vote to approve the minutes of March 11th read them over they all look good I'll make a motion to approve second all in favor unanimous um so we'll skip over meetings attended by select boards and public comment well can't skip over public comment to remember of the public here to comment live on Zoom all right um new business we have our annual update from our steamed representative M um hello you are esteamed um and I'm going to ask Nick Nick we see that you're on the call um if you can just bear with us a little bit but we're here we're here with State Rep Natalie Blake and Nick we appreciate you being here thank you yeah no problem thank you for inviting me sure sure so yeah this is just you know annually I take the opportunity to meet with all 17 select boards in the first Franklin District uh thanks to Karen who manages to some how make that happen it's really quite an extraordinary feat um so this is just really an opportunity to touch base with you see what's on your minds see if there there's anything that um you know I can be doing better or differently in the state house and just gives us an opportunity to make sure we're checking in and each jum in um I mean first of all I want to on behalf of the select board in the town of Conway just on the record just express our gratitude for coming through for us was the one from that was just really we were able to make that that was just so huge I can't even begin to describe how important that was for us and um no it'll I think it hasn't sunk into a lot of the residents just how meaningful that is how even though we got a we had to regretfully ask for authority to borrow 1.5 million last year we're not going to be having to actually borrow that money which will have wonderful impact on people's taxes yeah um and um just uh yeah so just thank you well I was happy that we were able to make that happen and want to thank Mast do too I mean M do came through for for Conway and Deerfield all of the towns impacted by the summer storms in a really tremendous way so we're very Lu ly to have them as partners in that that repair work and mot is continuing to come through for us too it's an ongoing thing they're they're good I think they would like budget increases for them too district one needs a budget increase they they made sure to let me know that um well just today they could do even more but their funding for district one has been relatively stagnant and they want more they they could they can help us even more Yeah we actually um invited secretary the Secretary of Transportation out today you'll see this like probably tomorrow in the reporter um and she brought her entire team out to Greenfield uh including Rail and Transit uh the highway administrator and really her team filled up the entire room which was extraordinary to have her was this the perk hog it was at perk hog today yeah y it's posted on the FCAT oh great yeah so it was a really constructive meeting she it turns out is from a small world town in northern Indiana so you know we spent about an hour at the Cog outling outlining the really specific challenges that we're seeing here in Franklin County and the opportunities around you know Highway rail supporting our regional transit authorities um gra gravel roads gravel roads we were able to talk about culverts um and we did have the opportunity after the formal meeting meeting at the cob to tour around on an FR frta bus so we went through Greenfield up in along a gravel road uh into Co rain and back down and I actually one of the things I talked to the secretary about was the state's maintenance of CTS because what we saw here in Conway you know where the the the CTS weren't big enough and as a result of that it resulted in the significant damage along 116 and all of those driveway in in people's homes along the way in many of our town roads too that was really one of the and also the fact that when the water goes through the CTS there's really no place for it to go but yeah yeah there's CS are I never would have thought that i' would be interested we're all getting much more turns outs so many times like yeah it turns out that that's like a really big deal um it really is they are you furog is doing a cver study analysis you right now to look at colberts in Franklin County um and they're finding that many of them are under sized and need to be to doubled or tripled in size and that those projects are costly to design or costly to construct um so that is something that we talked to the secretary about is you how can we be looking for funding um for those culs and we'll see what we can do with unpaved roads uh you know I introduced a bill to begin to look at unpaved roads since so many of our communities have such a high percentage of their total roadway mileage that is unpaved um there seems to be a recognition from this Administration that this is a problem for Rural communities because this Administration has been so tuned in to rural communities uh including establishing the director of rural Affairs um so there're they might take a look at what's included in the bill in terms of deliverables and see if Mast do can just do them uh just take that on without us having to pass legislation to establish a commission you know can Mast doot just direct some some time and some resources there so that we can get that additional information um and we are seeing results from this Administration in terms of funding too um the governor's H2 budget includes a set aside of $24 million for Rural roads uh that is and that's from the fair share Amendment so we'll see what happens as the house goes through its budget process um which is happening right now tomorrow I'm chairing a ways and means budget hearing on Judiciary and Public Safety in Worcester tomorrow we need another judge in our County lot things and then um I think there's one more general you know the ways and means budget hearing is open to the public after that and then on April 10th the house budget comes out so we're coming right up to that is there any discussion on changing um some of the U being able to build back better like instead of having to replace a 12in with a 12 in you can upgrade is that going through I mean I think that so for the natural disaster relief fund that we put forward um I imagine that will be a topic of conversation tomorrow because it is proposed to be managed by Administration and finance and Mima you know together in consultation with one another um so I I am guessing that we'll see a conversation tomorrow about that uh but the idea uh behind it is that you don't just build it back the way that it failed you build it back so that we don't see that sort of failure happening again at least that is certainly the the intent of Senator cord Deni bill and I think the Administration has taken that I well I know the administration is taking that same point of view I I know that's a bill that we keenly hope gets passed and um but it's also a bill where the devil's going to be in the details because um the criteria that they are going to be using to awarding funds is really really important to us and what what we have been I know I've been beating this drum for a while is um to have one of the criteria be the proportion of the damage that the the dollar value of the damage you get should be proportionate to your community's budget otherwise the big towns are going to suck up all the money because they're able to put so much more dollars on the board yeah than we can yeah um and um the other part too is that if if they just if they just go by what the current FEMA Mima criteria is then those of us with gravel roads right are really out of luck too yeah had to piggyback on that discussion uh we had talked with uh Senator com for about this as well but being in a small town there's a lot of challenges um you know people in Boston probably look at small towns as being numbers on spreadsheets the issue that we're having with a lot of the funding grants chapter 90 is the formulas that are used in a town like this where you have fewer people if there's a small handful of people that are wealthy the right the averages are much different so towns like us where we have we could have, 1500 people that are average or even poor and then 10 that are Mega Rich it's going to show that the average in the town is higher than it actually is so I'm not sure why it hasn't been proposed or not pushed forward to say even to deduct half the the the 05% of the highest pay from that formula to get a more accurate depiction of the actual Town um to be able to apply just apply for these grants or have a different chapter 90 outcome would be huge and in the past the legislature has tinkered with that formula by adjusting the relative percentages of each of those factors the one being the aggregate Minal income the other being the aggregate property value uh property values and I forget with some of the other but even just like a one or two% change in those would really help us and those would be Revenue neutral um so so so would and we looked you know with Burk Hog's help we did look at you know what it would what the results would be for communities if we change the formula a little bit versus what it would be if we went with you know the 200 million in the existing formula for chapter 90 and then for anything above and beyond like we just saw with $100 million that that is dedicated to roadway mileage not the formula and that really delivered for Rural communities um and I think I'm going for memory but I think that that going by roadway mileage actually ended up helping communities in a more significant way helping rural communities in a more significant um but there was a conversation with the secretary who did say that we've relied on population numbers for too long when it comes to these formulas um so there's there's there was a recognition in the room that the way that these grants and these programs um are administered and D out really needs to be looked at especially when it comes to real communities it's I me there seems to be consistent attempts to help rural communities out but they rarely emerg from the sausage making process onscale and um you know and I saw just a couple of weeks ago that the the rural education bill that's in committee that in committee it got stripped of much of its actual rural funding um they're still calling it the rural education bill but they took out the money that would help us yeah so you know I'm happy to speak to the r schools Bill uh it's a piece of legislation that I offered to Senator com forward um and it did come out of committee pretty significantly changed um it it is an it is an ambitious piece of legislation we we knew that because it was incorporating as many of the 36 recommendations included in the rural schools report as we could so we knew that it was ambitious to start with um the fact that it was reported favor Fable out favorably out of committee at all was a win because a bill of that magnitude and its very first session um can be sent to study and that sort of that can set you back for the next session so the fact that it was reported favorably out of committee was a good thing um I think they're given what we're seeing right now at the the state level in terms of budgets and we're we're just not seeing any growth for fy2 is really putting us at you know we're having to just be very careful fiscally when we haven't seen the levels of growth that we've been seeing over the last couple well last many years um so you know the committee looked at the bill and tried to move forward as many pieces as they could around funding but creating new funds right now given what we're seeing uh at these fiscally constrained times you know they had to take a look at that because the other thing that they don't want to do is establish a fund and then have to not fund it in a in a in a following year so that people come to rely on that funding and then it's and then it's stripped away that's that's something we definitely don't want to be doing either so um you know talking with the chair they did try to advance as many of those funding pieces as they could um but they couldn't get I mean in retrospect the November uh uh capital gains state capital gains and inheritance tax cuts don't really yeah that wouldn't that didn't have anything to do with us not meting F marks they haven't thany are you yeah but um we'll be fighting for addition you know looking at gr school funding just generally speaking in the budget there were a number of um recommendations that we put forward at the Ways and Means Committee hearing that we had at GCC on education so we'll be looking at rural school aid and increasing that hopefully by at least another $10 million we'll be looking at those School transportation reimbursements because we've heard from Regional Schools that in each of the instances where they had to renew their fiveyear contracts there seeing double digit increases percentage increases um we'll also be looking at this inflation factor which was raised where it's right now I think around 1.3% just brilliant and we really need to sh probably be up around 3 or 4% so that's another piece that we'll be looking at I I sit on the Regional Schools hus so those we're trying to put forward a package of solutions that the house could consider in the FY 25 budget to really help bring some money in and like you know like you know I've been on the frontier econom School Comm for 15 years now and um and one of the things that you've seen over time is just the growing dispar priority in the cost per student the ability of communities to afford those costs but we're at a place now where Frontier 177,000 something per student and you're seeing cost per student in eastern districts of 30,000 and um you know one of the things that the state does not do and that we as a district are unable to do is uh gather data about student outcomes like 5 10 15 years down the road student outcomes being how much money they're making and um you know in order to get any kind of legislation yeah on some kind on on a fairness argument that would close that Gap um beyond what we can afford with our property ta 100% property tax base we kind of need data that shows that there's a different in student outcomes down the road and surely you would think that there would be just if other districts are spending twice as much per student than us and are able to offer so many more programs and so much more enrichment academically and otherwise so I mean that I would love to see desie being be asked to do a Statewide survey on student outcomes 10 20 years postgraduation um and the one thing that I didn't mention in that that list is minimum School minimum student need uh per pupil student name and you know right now it's the governor proposed $30 per per pupil uh the house is historically brought that up to 60 U but the recommendation um from many organizations across the P has been that we bring that up to 100 so that's another piece that that could that's really good that that would really help um and you know those types of things student you know reimbursement of Transportation I would trade percentages of annual revenue for long-term security and what the number is going to be like those numbers are so important when we're building a budget and it's such a great unknown from year to year that if we just had greater certainty it would be so helpful um because so so many of the things that we could do are sort of multi-year things but we're we always do this like Lurch from year to year and it's again all these districts that can spend $30,000 a year don't have these issues um so but yeah um but I'm you're definitely you're definitely aware of the student of the school issues and that is really important to us because that's I just went through 10hour hearing it's it's two it's two it's 2third of our budget it's just it's it's it's of our budget it's nuts hours it was a 7 hour hearing yeah um that was really interesting I love it's one of the things I love most about being on the ways of Means Committee is you know being able to participate in these budget hearings you learned so much about every aspect of government and you know as members were're able to ask questions very specific to what our rural uh communities are are facing and we're able to lift up uh things like R school aid or whatever it happens to be in terms of the secretary that's before us so it's long day but it was really interesting then just a couple other things too um so one is we have the last remaining Dam on the South River the thing that is keeping it from being wild from source to um where it empties out in the Deerfield is the High Dam in way the Station Road it is a state on D um there's a significant number of people in town that would like to see that Dam dam removed we are unable to tackle that project or do anything about that as a town first of all we don't own it yeah um the state does have a DP has a dam removal section and they have a bun a very well indow fund for damn removal um we' love to see I'm starting something about that there are thousands and thousands of tons of sediment that have I mean that's the obstacle I would ad metant well when when the dam comes down something has to be done with that well unless you're the utility on Connecticut River you just have to flush it all down the river but we wouldn't be able to do that um so that would be that would be really good and the other thing that actually um fin just brought this to my attention today that what massach the at the end of life um when people require nursing care whatever um Medicaid it's medic yeah Medicare I get this but um what people are unable to Medicare puts a lean on people's homes I think it's Medicaid Medicaid yeah Medicaid puts yeah Medicaid puts a lean on people's homes and um and they are required to do so by federal law but Massachusetts is one of the only states there they said there was only two others that puts leans not just on what is required by federal law but many other categories of end of life expenses and um that is not required and um it was a huge shock for this family to shortly they buried their loved one to get a bill for $177,000 um and you know and they talk about how it just perpetuates intergenerational poverty um but it does and and you know yeah I'll check to see if there's legislation pending on this I feel like there is so I can check on good yeah um I'm of the mindset to give the most important things and not convolute so Schools transportation roads the damn Dam conversation damn dams yeah and of course the formula on chap chapter 90 yep learn nothing from fail and all my years serving has capacity beside him is it the formula it's fundamentally broken s like ours yeah um well I think you all have my cell and I think you know pretty accessible so if anything else comes out up or if you want to have more detailed conversations about any of these things uh just Reach Out Time yeah absolutely thank you for having me it's good to see you all and thank you rning for always answering my text and [Laughter] calls it was good to see you all all right take care thank you very much thank oh did you all right um so next discussion and possible vote on the 120-day waiver request for proposed Commonwealth of Massachusetts DCR land acquisition on for the benefit of town residence and Conway State Forest so this is why you're here Nick yes so um what would be would you like me to kind of describe just the the process of been and what DCR is is asking for specifically or that sounds like a thoroughly logical place to start okay great so um basically this is all about um DCR trying to follow um it's uh required set of regulations for whenever it completes uh purchase of a particular piece of property in a particular community so for any sale of land that DCR um buys um there are two sets of notices and Associated uh waiting periods so the first is the Department of Conservation is supposed to notify public officials so the board uh the state W the state senator and the regional planning board uh that we are working to purchase a particular piece of land so that happened already uh uh dcr's attorney sent uh the select board an email on February 26th um and there's a 120-day waiting period associated with um that notice so basically we have to wait 120 days before we can close on the land transaction um the second notice and waiting period is uh so uh the select board or the city council of uh the uh affected Community um is supposed to announce that DCR is working towards uh the purchase of that property at a public meeting like this um and there's a 60-day waiting period associated with that and so that was the certificate of announcement uh that was in that email sent to you um so that's all standard uh procedure for any for any DCR transaction um the second thing we were asking in this case is uh uh we were asking uh for a waiver for the 120 day waiting period uh from the select board uh which would essentially allowed DCR to close uh sooner and the reason we're asking for that um is is you know mainly to you know be um uh being responsive to the needs of the of the seller um you know pleas is always nice when we can close sooner um and in this particular case it would be helpful um and then um we are also getting close to the end of dcr's uh fiscal year um so which is June 30th so once if a project has to go into the next fiscal year just you know it slows things down even further so we just like to the waiver is you know basically the facilitate a sooner closing um I realized I probably should have introduced myself um so I'm Nick Rossi I am um one of the people at DCR that works on protecting properties for conservation um I'm somewhat new to my job I've been on the job since last June but I've been doing this kind of work for a while um and I mainly work in Hampton Hampshire counties um so did that all make sense I know that was a lot of that was a lot of stuff it did so so from the information you had sent to or had been sent to us um know I I did do you know I I was able to get a hold of the Conway Town assessor who is out on U medical leave right now but I did get uh her to my my at the time this information came the belief was that it was not under chapter 61 and um and you know you alert us today that it was and um and you know and so so my you know my thing is how much revenue is it's is part of the equation part of the decision made or part of the enthusiasm level for this is how much revenue the town will be losing losing um and before these two part the two Parcels combined before it went into chapter 61 were $2800 a year in in taxation Revenue now in chapter 61 it's $740 something doll a year private land owner who it is a private land owner and and I know this I spent a lot of time in this property the former owner um did M did Maple tap Maple there and I actually was part of the maple tapping and maple boiling for 10 straight years was always a big social occasion there um and a lot of people people in town when this got on the agenda they immediately thought it was the part it was a neighboring parcel that had the falling down house and is and borders the entrance the driving entrance into the the state forest a lot of Us wish that this was that that was the parcel um because that that that yeah um but but so so it is this this parcel is these are in chapter 61 but um was there was there ever a forestry plan that's because that's required for chapter 61 forestry um was it was it has to be a state approved forestry plan and there must be 10 years it's kind of stand yeah but I believe there was it wasn't harvested that long ago right or there is rather it wasn't it wasn't it was harvested um few years ago I believe cuz um because and and it was preserved under forestry and it would be still under forestry so there's no roll would there be a roll back a tax because it was within the time frame that there would be a tax roll back potentially if it was a change of use great question so um there wouldn't be roll back taxes because it would be staying in conservation so the or would be staying as as as as open space so there wouldn't be a change in use and then that's kind of what I figured um and then would the would the town have a right of first refusal like normally when it comes out of chapter 61 within this time period so another great question so it wouldn't be there would the town wouldn't have a right of first refusal because again um there's no changeing use so um so it wouldn't be triggered that's kind of what I figured as well so those would be my two attempts to possibly raise revenue for the town um um and um in case you haven't guessed we're this is this is high budget season for small towns like us and this is a particularly Grim budget season um so hence my questions so the um yeah um and but basically this is going to have no impact on Town Revenue Ian $750 year so it's a private piece of land that's being transferred to the state for the same purpose for but the the state does give does provide pilot payments unlike unlike the numerous private entities that Acquire conservation easements and what not in town like Franklin Land Trust um whose entire business model depends on hollowing out Municipal Revenue um but the the um you know so so I don't know I I mean I I know this is not Nick's Fault by any means but the state pilot payments aren't always uh obscenely inadequate so they are this but that's just because the places that are the most forested like us are also the most Rural and um with the least amount of votes so so we stand to lose around $700 well $750 in taxation but we would gain State pilot payments for 50 acres or whatever it is total so um it that would offset some of that 750 maybe most of it actually but um yeah so but I mean it is contiguous to the state forest it would seem like a good makes sense there's this little spot here yeah that little spot that little spot there between it and the whole and the rest that would be that would be really actually this just improved that property value a lot think um is this do we need to vote on this is this the well we would be voting on whether to authorize the chair of the select board to sign the 120 day waiver okay yes just the waiver there's also the announcement um but that's that's not a vote that's just kind of part of the the rags we the we signed the 120-day waiver and then it's just 60 days it's not like right is that what I understood correct yeah so it's still 60 days that's still two months right it would have been 120 and then 60 correct Nick they're not concurrent or are they they run they run concurrent they are concurrent okay yeah I don't know I feel like private party doesn't I mean it's it is a it is a PR you know I know the circumstances of the sale it makes um you know it's it's the when when and just generally speaking when children inherit property that they don't live in the area and their only interaction with that property is the payment of property taxes that that's that's how these things that's how a seller in general like tend to investigate these types of things it's um so it's and honestly we're lucky that they're doing it with the state instead of a a private entity then of which there are many and they advertise aggressively for these types of properties so um if it's I mean that just seems like a lot of bureaucracy 120 days I'm totally happy to whatever they can do in 120 days like we can do in 60 so I'm happy to cut that down yeah um that's just OB obscure state laws I don't think the people involved anything to do with it except they got to follow them um so do you want to make a motion so or I mean sure what would be the appropriate wording of the motion well I mean it has it written out actually I wanted to ask you Nick it says on the announcement that the board's supposed to make Clerk of the select board is it supposed to be Clerk or chair can it be chair of the select board uh yeah it can be chair yeah okay so do you need the chair to read that at this meeting or just we'd enter it in the minutes I believe people usually read they usually read the um the paragraph right before the um uh the certificate of announcement all right so um this is this is an announcement pursuant to DCR number p-001 053 the town of Conway I Philip caner the chair of the select Board of the town of Conway Massachusetts do hereby certify that on Monday March 18th 2024 it was announced that a public meeting of the select board that the department of conservation and Recreation is considering the acquisition of two Parcels of land located in Conway as shown on the attached or on the on on file Locust map that is marked as exhibit a for conservation Andor Recreation purposes um and then there would be a waiver statement right so then you would vote to approve the 120-day waiver okay so so this would be so the motion would be this would be a motion that pursuant to 301 CMR 51.0 71b got that ad yeah um I Philip caner chair hereby acknowledge that on Monday March 18th 2024 the Conway select board um when it votes to do so agrees to wave the 120-day notice period as required by said section regarding two Parcels of land located in Conway as shown on the Locust map on file marked as exhibit a for conservation Andor Recreation purposes in which the department of conservation and Recreation is considering acquiring an interest second all in favor I I I it's unanimous so did we good did we do good Nick yeah that was that was great thank you very much all right very good um do we have anything else with is that we done with that I think so okay um but very nice to meet you Nick nice to meet you as well thank you very much everyone thank you thank you good evening all right good night good night um what you want to do first oo funds of the bench well we've got Kendall and Cate here so okay sounds like the bench is it um shoot sorry um discussion and vote on placement of the 4tier bench in Veterans Memorial Park um Kate you got any thoughts about [Music] this sorry um you know I think is probably the better person to speak to this because she's been more involved so um I'm going to see if she's able to say something uh I'm here I wasn't at the last elect board meeting when this was discussed okay K so so a brief a brief synopsis in the extreme Readers Digest version is that the um the Tim forier um of the what no I I I'm I'm I'm aware I'm aware of all of it okay um yeah I just wanted to know what you're you're voting today on with the on oping the placement of the bench well he he he um he wishes for no we we we we said we were surveys the stakeholders decide on replacement last time um and and uh Tim wishes for this decision to be made as soon as we can so um and last week we did hear from members of the Council of Aging that they would prefer it elsewhere um that that they liked it on either uh on either the um South River Meadow or possibly in um in the uh Town common across from the former Masonic Lodge the the problem with those is that well the town common would increase our mowing contract expenses every year uh because right now they can mow and when they have to get off the lawn mower and we whac it the price for that service goes up for each little parcel that they do so um he also didn't want to transport it too far it could crack yeah and going up it would be going up a hill with a sketchy kind of a thing um the the um and the same thing to add another bench the the the um the highway department was not real keen on the one bench that was added the first bench that went into South River Meadow because that turned a former before with that whole Meadow all they ever needed was a lawn mower now they need to lug out the weed whackers too and um get off the lawn mower and weed whack around that bench and they really don't want us to do that again um so I mean the Council of Aging would probably prefer that we replace that existing bench with this bench but um it's already on a pedestal and is sort of it's not not really feasible and for the same reason putting it in front of the Town Offices doesn't really work because again that little square land is just something that they can zip through with their lawnmower on the way to mow something else and not have which is I don't even know if that's a separate budget item for the mowing contract because it takes them so little time but if we make them get off the loan mower we whack then it becomes a thing so um so that for all those reasons like we were kind of looking for a site for it that would not increase the town's ongoing annual permanent expenses um so that's why you know and I guess I I guess I know at least one of the 40 years like the idea of keeping it close to where it was but yeah I think I think the fact that it still would be angled to view the Christmas tree was a big selling point and I did speak with Ron and there's no issues with where the placement is that you have right there on Veterans Park so so that's kind of so you saw the map Kendall I I sent the map to very where we thought it should go well just checking I don't know um so uh yeah yeah so I guess I guess the pollinator the pollinate now committee is uh in favor of this since they sent the map Fair assumption and yes uh it's really just to to allow this bench to still serve as uh to honor the 4ers and to put it somewhere near the Christmas tree would be nice but we we don't have a strong feeling about where it goes it would be great if if everyone was happy where it's relocated um but uh we just I had sent ber a few concerns about whether wherever it goes well if it's if it goes across the street where where Ron okayed it then Dig Safe should be called and we're hoping that Tim will leave the site by the Christmas tree as clean as possible um you know just those are some factors but it's really up to you about whether this this is a go I like your I like the thought of doing something that can make everybody in the town happy wouldn't that be nice I myself think that there is no such thing on this universe that could actually make everybody happy maybe this will be the bench maybe it maybe maybe it's this bench on this spot but yeah yeah one them had also raised Festival of the hills and we heard back from them that they were fine with that weren't didn't they they did yeah I'm really GL glad to hear that I wondered about that um so are is everybody okay with yeah great because you can see the tree I mean it's kind of like yeah I think it's perfect it's not that far the original intent is honored I think yeah yeah and and uh Chief Bates does know about it so he'll be able to help if we just need to get it right across 116 that and and the bench itself is very highly visible from the road it it sounded like Tim was asking for assistance from the highway department is that something that yeah he he would like one person's assistant for an hour assistance assistance yeah I think it's going to be really hard to move that bench yeah but but Erica did volunteer one of her children so um oh my gosh she Farms about as much as possible um so we'll see how that goes but um so I'll make a motion to uh approve to approve the placement of the 40-year b bench in Veterans Memorial Park in accordance with the map prepared by the pollenate now committee um which what what pollinate Conway pollinate Conway committee okay sorry um seconds all in favor I I all right and then Kendall you were good with um marking the spot correct or somebody from yes yeah um Kate and I are going to be there tomorrow between 3:30 and 5:30 and we can mark it then okay thank you so much I think Tim said he was coming out the second of April it was early and nth the 8 9th of April so that is pretty soon hopefully so if anybody wants to if anybody wants to come between 3:30 and 5:30 have an opinion about it you're you're welcome to join us then as any of you all right very good okay thank you thank thank you thank you um discussion suggested uses of opioid settlement funds okay so um this is a little bit um I'm trying to get at the bottom of exactly what the regulations are for expending these funds um and just to let you know too we got emails today that this year's money had come in and then we got an email saying it came in too soon so just hang on it was like okay um so I had contacted the state about this to try to get to the bottom of it that's when I had that meeting with care Massachusetts and that's when they told me that technically we should probably have a 5-year plan and that um the select board is the final Authority for deciding how the funds get spent although um M Cella we're going to be putting an article on the warrant to Move It from the fund it's in into a special revolving fund so that it doesn't have to go through anymore anyway so and as I I said I think last week or the week before the Board of Health is interested in the Narcan stations and I've also talked with ambulance and um firing police about the aeds so I just kind of want to get to the bottom of exact I don't I don't want us to expend These funds and then find out that somebody somewhere is going to say no you didn't do that properly so I just want somebody to it it sounds like 95% clear that we can go ahead and vote to do this but I think it did make sense to get the same aeds that we already have so that all of the maintenance of those would be or the ambulance if they get a new one to upgrade them all to the same one but yes to make sure the uniform I think that's what she said yeah but there's also a little bit of discrepancy I need to speak with the furog some more because they've been having conversations with the Board of Health about potentially um using some of the funds in conjunction with the fer hog effort so that will be a later conversation and there was some conf you know the furog was saying they didn't think that we could use it for aeds but I have something that says that we can so this is why I'm just a little nervous I want to be I want to have something clear in writing it says you can do this before but it's just sitting in a in an account right now correct that we're not touching that we're not touching and and we're getting how much like what's in there now and what can we expect 15,000 right now and we're getting payments over either 30 or 35 years I think the total is only going to end up being about 75 or 80,000 it's not a huge amount of money um so yeah so these are so who would put the restrictions on how we can spend that money with that be that's the state however yeah so this is why because I'm getting conflicting information I just want to be 100% sure before the Board of Health and you know I come before you and say these are the things we'd like to spend the money on yeah I guess the lobster dinner for all the whole town would be appropriate but but however I mean we haven't spent any of this money yet right I just I I would like to see us like I mean yes it's like I understand why we're getting the money but um from the point of view of us being a very small town if we have this pot of money the fewer restrictions on the spending of it the better if it's to you know combat addiction then like you could spend all that money on like doesn't have to be Naran stations it could be like you know Community like things that kind of come out you know Health wellbeing in general and that's I mean I I personally think that you know the Board of Health being the closest to knowing what the problems are who's been affected you know that kind of thing I personally would prefer to just go with Board of Health recommendations or how they feel that it should be spent um to an extent yeah I mean I definitely like I want to take that into consideration but I feel like if this is money that's coming from like with relatively few strength attached let's try to well there are no that's the problem is that there are definite there's like seven or eight definite areas that you can spend the money on so that's not you know constrain ourselves to let's keep it as open as possible you know I I also thought about you know an actual um opioid awareness talk to our sixth graders or something that by someone that's actually really good at it which there aren't that many that are um would be an also like a use a good use just within that education it' be nice to see a breakdown of cost like I think the aads defibrillators is a great idea they're not cheap um we live we live in a town with many senior citizens our disease is prevalent I think it'd be great to have Universal aeds around so we could see how much it would cost to replace all the aeds we currently have and then um all the Narcan stations know Narcan for EMS fire police of course and then any of the stations the health department recommends and see where the budget is after that and there are towns that are putting um a uh Naran dispenses dispensers like sort of like vending free vending machine kind of thing um well that's what they're talking about 24/7 access right we yeah we don't have 24/7 on the problem is that they're temperature sensitive so that's why they wanted to place one in the town hall and then one up at the Old Highway garage um but it would only be accessible during open hours but the police fire ambulance they already they all have Naran right so um because I got and I was I was told that now Naran Is Now by federal and state law it is um available over the counter and it's supposed to be prominently sold at like every Pharmacy and every grocery store and every convenience they want it sold in gas stations and convenience stores that are the ones that are open 24 hours and yet hardly any of them are selling them and the ones that do are keeping them locked you know with with the with the nibs and every like next to the nibs and the what so I guess part of my question too is if we can get the new aeds and and Naran from this fund um does that relieve some money from other funds such as the police department the EMS um it would certainly help um ambulance because well I mean they're they aeds working fine now but this would be a budget item that they wouldn't have expended on and I know the police um they want one in the police cruiser um so that would be you know money that he wouldn't have to spend that's what I would say is to offer some relief to the other funds to offer extra additional um funding whe and wherever they think it needs to be spent or we think it needs to be spent to say but that's what I would want to look into what can we use to offset those other funds right right and then you know a huge part of this like you had said is going to be Community Education and Outreach um so what's the best kind of plan going forward what makes sense in a small town should you know monies be added to the fur clog and see if there's a regional effort that we've become part of or does the town want to do it on its own you know those are all questions we'll have to Grapple with excuse me minut yeah I don't like I don't want to more money all right so we did complete our new business and it is almost 7 o' um so we can start our our finance committee meeting like time for the first time thank you so I make a motion to call the finance committee meeting order jointly with an honorable select Board of con second all in favor I all right I make a motion to approve the committee meeting EV for the March 11th finance committee meeting as presented all in favor car onto the cola onto let's start with let's start with the Department well yeah I'll go ahead the way I had it listed anyway was um the first one's Personnel since we have the Personnel committee here oh my goodness does that mean you should I didn't even think about it cuz you're for yeah probably call me no we weish weish so all right so I not for the record that the Personnel committee is here and they're not talking about anything related we're not deliberating that's right no we're not deliberating do you have to take a vote before bedtime no it does complicate um so you want you want to talk about the budget sure the first thing the first thing you say though is personel commit meeting tomorrow we have a lot of items to cover so I was going to propose that maybe we should be on the agenda for next week for select board if select board would like have a report for Budget or just no just general activity just general activity I think that's great I think following our meeting tomorrow we'll have a report recommendations to provide to you guys for consideration um and we need to get them to you before your next meeting posts so um but I think we can do that yes chair yes yes from what I know some of the things you will be talking about I am interested in those yes yes and you you're obviously welcome and inv to tomorrow night meeting yes yes sent you the it's a remote meeting the agenda it's it's a zoom meeting so no cookies next bring it to us a look board so Personnel committee has one budget item for 2025 it is $1,500 of which $195 of it would be used for a review of a revised Personnel committee handbook by the employers Association of New England through furog through fcog yes and the rationale for doing this is the current Personnel handbook is very old has not been revised in several years and to sort of get this publication off to a good start and have it be something that is useful to the town as well as the employees we want to employ as much best practice as possible so that's why proposed that we consider getting this this edition of it reviewed by this organization which is a specialty of theirs um I don't see that I was thinking about whether we would need this to be done on a regular basis and I don't actually see it that way for this particular need it's because it hasn't been it hasn't been revised since 2018 formally revised right formally R since 2018 and was it ever reviewed do we know by any Professional Organization I'm aware or is just that's just what the rules that we know that the last commit Personnel committee meeting prior to this was in January of 2018 so you know we're six years later and so anything that we have is is six years out of date at this point and we don't know that it's ever been reviewed by an HR professional ever I don't believe so the previous chair of uh the personal committee was an HR professional at UMass okay okay so we're probably starting from good place then she did regrettably quitting disuss yeah yeah but we have found in going through it um that there are I I think it it has been peacee a bit here and there and there are now some conflicts that have been built into it it just needs and then I think you might recall a couple years ago we took out some sections because it had been set up in the handbook but then there was no forms or any kind of process to go with what was stated in the handbook and it was like well let's get that first before we put it in right book so and it's unrealistic I think to expect a committee to do that kind of to have that I mean best practice right exactly right I mean this is kind organization yeah this is it's worth I feel like the investment the only the only part about that is that the best practices have been by and large developed by much larger communities and larger towns and cities um and um and we see this and other Personnel context like with the schools and everything so that the work product that you tend to get and we get this from through with a school from the Statewide organization the work products that you get are sophisticated M no I I we're aware of this and you know and they they work well for cities that have thousands of employees professional and they're kind they read like they they're for that but um the provision of extensive procedural and subst and substantive rights that are not currently on offer um really gums up the works sometimes so yeah and it does but you know at the same time of course uh we don't want to find find ourselves Li liable for something you know the the HR world is is such a morass these days and it's easy for us to find ourselves where I was going with that is you know that the product that you may get feel free to edit it oh yeah this professional the other thing too is certainly myself as a committee chair is perfectly comfortable saying to this organization this is what our expectation is with this review don't rip it apart and make it treat it like we're we're Newton ammer or Newton Massachusetts you know here's the context of what we have and this is why we need the review and to veronique's point you know there's a whole there's a whole set procedures and forms and processes that have to be developed to support everything that's in that handbook and that is still to be determined yeah yeah and and none of this is Reinventing the wheel right so I mean it's just it's just like and I exist ours will not be the first small town that Ian has worked with right there right yeah I have to say it's been a huge relief to me to have access to and we now have at least four of us signed up in town that are able to access the HR hotline and their website and everything and it's just it's just a big relief and the other the request is for $1,500 the rest of it would be if we had to specifically interact with Town Council so that would only be on a Case basis so that may never happen you know we we might not need to do that in 2025 yeah it's probably not a bad idea to run it by Town Council anyway CU you know being a Town Council of a lot of small towns um with a lot of HR experience so talk fast Town council's 150 an hour you got 300 extra yeah well when I deal with my experience with outside counsil here's my list of stuff I want I want to address I control the agenda not we can meet out of office to tr right right so that's that's the source that's the source of our request okay all right okay yeah so um Ian I got so as the budget committee is the school budget committee first ad here um the the uh the budget before the transportation contract came in was well under 3% increase um this is the budget after the unanticipated $50,000 increase in transportation costs so wait there is no yeah I haven't gotten that break I and and and I asked her to also the number that was revealed at the public meeting is not going to be the numbers the after the public meeting concluded the school committee voted to have another look at this budget because uh nobody was comfortable presenting these numbers in light of the frontier numbers which were also very negatively affected by the GCO Transportation increases um and um and and so this and and this discussion you know Allan and Tom participated in this live at the meeting um that about the impact of school choice on this budget and the the sixth grade graduating class at Conway is uh includes 14 kids that were school choice so con the the grammar the element is unique because we have um just one teacher per grade and two AIDS per teacher so the costs to the town do not increase with more school choice kids and every year there's way more school choice applicants than what we accept um and there's a desire to keep class sizes between 18 and 22 generally That's The Sweet Spot Best Practices whatever um so we're losing a class with 20 kids 14 of of whom are school choice the incoming kindergarten class is 22 kids 20 of whom are Conway residents so in one sense that's good that's really good CU you get chapter 78 for and and the prek class already has uh what 14 15 Conway residences so the the future nice to know the families are moving into con yeah it is yes I remember when my when I I moved to Conway and I had a kid and I looked at because that's when they used to you know publish the lot of information the report but I looked at the list of the kids that were born that year in town and I was like my God who is my kid going to go to kindergarten with you know it turns out there were a lot of school choice kids I'd love to see that like so could be the few busy families so but but but but because we're the outgoing sixth grade class the losing 14 school choice incom in kindergarten we're there's two there 22 kids two school choice so we're losing 12 that's 50 that $60,000 right there and um $60,000 is the difference between being under 3% M and and 4.64 so so but this is without the transportation budget this is with the transport it's not broken down it's not broken down it's not broken down separately so what is the transportation budget then but when we this 4.64 that includes okay that includes at least 75,000 Transportation the transportation is over 100,000 now we're we're significantly over 100,000 it's like 120 it's like it's something 25 would be if you added 50,000 yeah that's about what it is right so even without transportation we're still at almost 5% increase in oper no it has Transportation yeah it has transportation in but but the exact precise number is not included okay all right so um so so Phil when when do we typically find out about school choice op good question the deadline for application is April 1st right so that no that's just the automatic default for um so yeah um the deadline for application is is April 1st but the school committee is meeting March 28th and we'll be voting the final budget then the principal the school thinks so she'll have a real good handle nobody waits to the last day to apply it's the day before April whatever and so um she'll have a real good handle we did one of the people on the zoom call at the public hearing was the kindergarten teacher and we we were a and who is M Mr B is a Legend um and we all know you we we yeah we we know him and love him um and uh I mean I'm yeah he's he's awesome he's amazing he's the reason people yeah absolutely um and we um so we we flat out asked him would he be comfortable with a few more because he's so well known that people move into the town to start kindergarten or or send their kids to town to to our school to for for for him um and he said he would you know he'd be okay with a with a few more so um and then there's a bunch of other grades that have relatively low numbers of school choice and and that it's okay to take a few more in each one we in the past we've never really exerted pressure on the administration to say yes to a few more cuz you know when you're taking a school choice kid from these are all most of them are from Greenfield they're they're from like neighboring it really hurts the sending town like it really does and we try to be sensitive to that to some extent um and and some of our neighboring districts are really you know Pioneer and Mohawk um you know Pioneers incoming nth grade class is like 15 kids it's just it's not just it's bad um and so and they're sending a ton of kids to Frontier and to to H grammar so it's not good for them but um you know this is so so the school committee did make an inquiry to the administration whether you know in the in the school choice revolving account which is the amount school choice pays it's got 220 23,000 in it it is bad practice to spend current year school choice fund you weight a weighte debt raises red flags to Desi when you spend current year Revol but we did ask the administrate to the administration to assess all the variable moving parts and would they be comfortable with a $45,000 additional school choice Choice um so that the number would be brought down to below 3% annual increase again so that's we'll see on March 28th but I'm hopeful that I I know it'll come down we don't know whether how it'll come down how much so that is the that's the story of that so we'll find out April 1st is the we meting April 1st April 2 oh it's March 25th and then be the 30th April April is it April Fool yeah April Fool April April 1 will know I just wonder if at some point it might be worthwhile to I know the finance committee is going to kind of do the presentation as far as or Capital Improvements at least and you know investing in you know infrastructure and trucks like putting in for the town and I just at some point maybe we should think about like a presentation about the importance of investing in you know Public Schools um for being important I mean I I've always felt like that's very important to me like I like you know my kids are all out of public school but it's very important to me that I live in a town that like people want to move to I'm like I'm so excited to hear that they like you know so many kids in the kindergarten class it's funny because the the presentation at um at uh town meeting for the superintendent and the school principal is so nerve-wracking um you know you you you get you get a sense of the room pretty quickly about where the room's at and if you if you have a good sense that the numbers you presented are acceptable to the town the desire is just to be quiet and don't CU When you keep talking you got to possibility of saying something really that could that that that could mess it up so get but and I have this I have this discussion with them all the time that you know you have to toot your own horn to some extent and you have to the long term you have to keep the vast percentage of the town that has no direct relationship with the school you have to keep them apprised of what's going on right but I guess my point is like even if you don't have a direct relationship with the school you have an indirect relationship with the school isn't isn't uh you know turnover in the town a driver of new growth I mean when when your your properties increase in value you're selling to new families coming in you know I mean yeah it drives taxes up too but that's that's the only driver new there was a really good Federal Reserve study that came out not that long the Federal Reserve Board of Economist study that said if you have a high- performing local elementary school it adds 10 to 15% to your property values we found that out well right yeah but like sometimes it's good that I mean you want your property value right right and so you know and you want to live in I mean I like I I personally want to live in a town where people want to continue living in the town generation after generation wants to continue living in the town and that's why I personally feel like absolutely invested in the school system because that's why else would people move here why else would young people move here well I have I have a different perspective I don't have kids um I had enough [Music] so the way I see it since being on these boards is that we heavily scrutinize and Penny pinch every single Department aside from the largest spending Department that we have because of the stigma behind it and I understand it and everybody wants a great school and great education but I think a more Focus needs to be paid attention to on the spending that is going on because look at these increases it's almost 13 1 12% over four years so this is that's this is an excellent point and the one of the things about this is that um the the school committees are statutorily set up different than all other committees they School committees can actually issue their own debt um they can you know they they they they are statutorily responsible for their own budget and we can at on the floor of town meeting we can lower it but to do so on the floor of town meeting is like savagely irresponsible because by that point the options for that the school actually has to reduce it is almost always like laying off staff and um what that's why to me it's really important that like a select board member be part of the school committee um we and then and then get on the budget Committee of the school which is one rep rep per Town M yeah and um and you know all I can tell you is that these things are really heavily scrutinized we have a ton of meetings I don't cut anybody a break ever um on these things and really um and and like you know I I love the school I wanted to support but there's all kinds of stuff that I cut out in there too all the time yeah all kinds of things all kind like the you know um this this this year they wanted for a specific academic permit they wanted a consultant and when I looked into it and saw how much the consultant was charging like no well here's here's another we had the the wealth tax right that just got passed right a lot of the savings or the extra income of that went towards the school right free lunches um what else there were some other things that were provisioned for the schools yet the budget is still increasing almost almost 5% because because we are this is so so lunch in particular L already we had two we had 3/4 of our students qualified for free lunch anybody whose family is is Mass health qualifies for a free lunch statutorily so we were already and this goes to the whole thing about how unfair it is the way that they calculate the revenue and and you know what the town owes for and while you can't get in Grant programs that we when we have three4 of residents that qualify for free lunches at school and yet we're considered a town as wealthy as Wellsley and you know um Resort Community Resort yeah yeah but but but basically we were only getting lunch money from one quarter of the kids and the cost of administrating just the the billing and all that was just like two hour whatever two or three hours per week for basically those things like wash out and um we the the lunch money actually does not the lunch program does not usually cost us anything it's which it should the the the federal reimbursement for which is USDA for lunches um has if it when it was started in 1976 if it just kept up up with inflation it would be something like $15 per lunch we still get like $3 per lunch from them and we ask you we're really lucky that we have an incredibly talented like lunch crew with actual like professional Caterers making the food every day um because that's what they do in it's their side business um yeah they start the budg for sure they they what they do with by just making homemade stuff um is just incredible and yeah um but that is we should be getting more money we from all of these state things that they keep promising it always flows towards the 17 districts in the state where English is a you English is a second language where there's huge homeless student populations etc etc and they need that but we get left behind and that's why that's one of the things I beat up on Natalie about all the time just you know we need our fair share and we're not getting it so it these are all correct issues and but um as a local school committee I don't or as a select Bo I don't know what we can do to solve them and it is it the rate of growth is unsustainable it has been since the 1970s the it it's you know Allan brought up the point where like what was the year at at the meeting what was the year where school where the state reimbursement was like you had a you had a fact thing that state reimbursement in like 1980 was like 40% and now it's yeah 2003 was 1.125 million now it's about 1.3 million 2023 20 years later yeah and it's just but there's no City in town in Massachusetts that's at the level of funding that they were at Dollar for dollar right since 03 yeah and so and so this it really is the the lack of State support for our schools really is sort of the Alpha and the Omega of our problem yeah it's the lack of federal support what's both what's a quarter of the state's budget yeah what's a quarter of the state's budget the mass health yeah one quarter and they just cut 200 million out of it it's only so much yep y so there's going forward I mean the discussion was about the Essa Grant not not going away and roate schools being an issue for fiscal year 26 so my question would be uh with the school committee in the coming year consider other Alternatives I'm looking at the U possible paying of school bus transportation by parents since we're transporting 41 kids of families opting in the pay for for busing some sliding scale amount uh you know that that was brought up um I don't know what the appetite for something like that is and um you know we had that in Westwood the year we moved there was it $600 a year it changed it changed what ends up happening is parents start driving their kids to school y That's the reality that's what they'll do yeah yeah and and the other thing is that um what what what what hurts us is the decision by parents to go when when you assess extra fees there are so many families right at the margin that it pushes them into home school or into Charter or private or whatever and then we lose much more than we gain from that type of program so um might be R around here if they go to Charter School that means we're paying a loty trans Transportation yeah yeah I mean so but but but home homeschool in particular is really um those those numbers went up during covid right and they're coming back down but that is something that those numbers went up in town in in all every town in like the country this town yeah those numbers went up because of Co during the pandemic there was a lot of different reasons the huge that that one year when everybody when nobody could stay employed that one year and the town unemployment level hit record highs well I I asked the super Superintendent at the meeting how many of the buses end up getting there and they're not even half full right yeah yeah I went that's without a charge yeah I I went to Frontier and I used to go take the bus uh to school every uh in middle school and then once I got to high school my mom and dad drove me to and from school every day and and and there's a lot of parents that are not fortunate enough to be able to do that and you know so so it ends up being that busing serves generally speaking the least financially blessed among us and that when you put fees on that that's really who you're putting fees on um you should be the other way around we should charge money for double parking in front of the school and encourage people to use the buses um but cred for walking yeah right right right so the I don't know there there's there's a lot of smart people that try to figure this stuff out and you're welcome to take my spot on the school committee go yeah but I it's these are these are tough issues and this the the increase rate is not sustainable it is the state's fault but that doesn't take you very far at town meeting when you still got to support your school or get persuade your community to support your school and the School interventionist position that's included in this budget yeah how much is that like 75,000 or something I'm not I can't I I don't remember precisely that number I think that's what it that's like ball park because it's a PhD but they they do the the report is that that it um is a really they don't want to part with that position because they credit that position for Conway's test scores in the past two years is like shooting up to the very top of the state um and not just like the mcast there's a test that is giving World worldwide the nwaa that it's how it's you can compare you to every other state and every other country and it's the one that says that if Massachusetts was a country we would have the second or third best schools in the country in in the world um um but we're we're far and above the best performing state in education in the country I feel like the grammar schools I remember that test when my kids were there like the grammar school's always been a very high performing school like for years have the other town sundland and whle and Deerfield didn't still haven't included a school interventions in their budgets right from the grammar school um I know Whitley's looking at it yeah Whitley's looking at it and I think Sunderland is doing something part part there's yeah and Deerfield has been talking about it too because there's a large segment of the student population has not really recovered from the long-term absences that they've had and that's really the purpose of the interventionist um and we're still we're still at that but there's um and absences are are are trickling up again and but there there's uh yeah the the number of the the the the Conway kids that are doing reading and math like or above grade levels are just astonishingly High compared to the state averages how about to the other to wait me suland we have increased over about there since the yeah we've been the gold standard in this district for a number of years and we we've separated ourselves from the pack even more which is part of the reason that is an attractive place to move to and like raise your kids you know I mean the number of kids just from those three towns that that Tred to school choice into Conway grammar is pretty pretty astonishing you want to move on no okay um so um there's the frontier budget we did run through that um Franklin Tech will be here next week to give their presentation but I did want to show you this because as of as of today um we don't have anybody signed up to attend Smith vocational so that would that's huge that would be a nice chunk of savings if that does and that that application deadline has [Music] passed yeah um but Frank Tech so you know that's that's always a scary those numbers oscillate so much I heard our numbers aren't aren't so bad um because I was talking to John one of the board members um there who lives in town and uh he said yeah their budget's increasing but he said on way this is just anecdote I I I wouldn't I I wouldn't you know what what we do know is that there I do know from um other school committee from other select board members that they've already done their we're like the last in in our area it's the presentation run through our towns the warrants are closed already Etc um their cost per pupil is now 275,000 our cost per pupil is 175,000 year yeah so you know it's at the point where it is um you know it's in our best interest as a community to dissuade kids from going there um and and one of the things that Frontier has done if you you were at that meeting they got those $300,000 in Grants to set up these programs that are vocationally oriented um the computer assisted drawing stuff and um every Vette Tech stuff all these things that kids used to go to Franklin tech for are now being offered um with some of the same instructors at front at Frontier and it's you know the V Tech program has been a real home run for Frankin technal high school kids get turned away yeah so they had their first um they had the first job placement or internship placement for a 10th grader in a local veterinary thing they were all happy about that so so but that's yeah they they're trying to do things but my thing is that we Frontiers still takes a day out of their 180 days to allow Franklin Tech to come in and do informational assemblies and recruit from our students and and I I and um I'm trying to put a stop to that so I just am it's just sorry when you when your cost exceed Ours by $10,000 and you take that much revenue from our town um you're no longer in the town's best interest you might be in the individual family or CH child's best interest but um I don't know about that I just know about the town's best interest so um I thought somebody was going to be here from the cancel on Aging but um they did put in a request for more funding and as I understand it's for another Foot Clinic okay so I was asked to speak about this too s sorry yeah so cuz I'm doing the on the select board rep to the mive motion thing and I'm the one that the Council of Aging likes to beat up on your favorite punching back but um the they so as you can see their budget has been absolutely flat forever um and uh as we were contemplating whether or not to join as a town the South County Senior Center which the fee for the for the town of Conway would have been 32,000 had we done that this year and we look at how much we're actually spending now um this um and you know there's more that they can do there's more that they want to do the Foot Clinic is almost always sold out is not o Open only to seniors it is open to town seniors get first dibs but um I've gone there twice for foot massages it's great so sorry it's 30 30 bucks for like a serious professional nursing foot massage man um now I'll never be able to get pointment thing but um they had pedicures on there don't give any ideas but um but um um yeah so so that they're it's a it's a really good program they're they're sold out usually I think oh yeah um and they believe that they could easily fill up another one especially if I keep doing free advertising like that but like so this is this this budget is just literally reflective of an extra Foot Clinic of an extra Foot Clinic and they think they might be able to have the um the nurse here for more hours as well and she's always over subscribed as well and it's really good that we have that County first of all she's awesome but um Meg Meg Ryan is awesome um and the other and if she's here for more hours then she can see more seniors and um being so being so far from medical services that makes that service really useful so um I told them that I would support this I told them that I was only one vote among many but um you know but that it this seems like you know even though this is a really crappy budget year this is something that senior citizens are out of our population of almost 1,800 senior citizens are 760 of us and all that we all that we do for them every year is $1,200 like so and and we and we ask them to support everything else cuz our the demographics of who attends Town meetings skes towards seniors so yeah col yeah that's next on that well um it's just something to think about I didn't really want to get too far into this discussion because there's still moving parts to the budget itself that we don't right understand this is way easier to support than the increase in the elementary school not really there's a huge difference there's a big there's big differences and then the other thing too is um this was brought up to me by a town department head who wishes to be anonymous remain anonymous that this year there were some departments that submitted budgets that included salary raises as part of their there were other budgets that didn't really know that that was okay CU it never used to be okay and that in the past I remember this came up a couple years ago when the town clerks I believe it was submitted a budget with wages increased wages as part of that budget and I I um I was reminded that there was a belief that we had voted to to instruct departments not to do that anymore that to make a note in their budget requests that these are the salary requests that they're making but to not actually include them and that would we be better off looking at the various Town budgets as a whole with clean budgets and when we're considering Cola to include to also consider all of the salary requests um as one clean transparent um thing rather than the way it is now um we could be argued that it lacks trans as much transparency as we could bring to bear on the subject well just to speak to that since I was the one who agreed to put them in there it was contingent on being reviewed by the board and the personel and the Personnel committee and that those would be recommendations and I if there was a vote that was before I was here um and there have been people who have put in and asked for raises before so I don't think it's an unusual year for that I think the best practice though is to put in just clean operating budget requests with notes at the bottom of that request and then to just do all of the salary requests and the C because to the extent that you give once you determine what the acceptable pool of amount for money for wages is wage increases is then it becomes uh a then there's you know you can more equitably discuss what's fair to to all employees and um Etc but once there's some oh what on Earth are you we have not been idle I haven't been idle 40 minutes didn't sign that is ridiculous sorry sorry I'm still recording it's still recording but oh yeah there was nobody else on there yeah um I I so so I get that Lori was on there but uh was she oh was she still on um I mean she hasn't spoken yet what on Earth it all went away too uh if you launch uh you have zoom on your laptop no I'm not going to give you feedback right now um we we've had issues with Z but what I wanted to say to that is that there's there's two parts to that one is decid on the pot of money that you have to give colas and the other is making sure that the positions are paid according to what the position should be paid and I think those should be kept as two separate I I agree but I also feel like if we were to look at what the position should actually be paid we wouldn't be able to afford to pay any of these and I don't I I don't I don't actually I don't agree with the idea that we are underpaying people I don't I in order to agree to that you have to believe that we are part of the hiring pool of existing Professionals in those positions we are not we never have been we are the first job for people that uh wish to ascend to those positions this is true across the board um every single one of our highest paid professional positions superintendent Director of Business Administration curriculum director in the schools um um uh Town Administrator Police Chief Fire Chief every single Highway boss every single one of our highest paid positions this was this is their first job in this position so that's why we shouldn't be competitive so so it uh it those people that wish for this to be a career path um 10 in in this town's history after a number of years they seek out higher pay and we're never going to be able to compete with our neighboring towns with much larger populations I think we're going to have a lot of the same conversation next week so I don't want to really you know shoot everything off right now let's let's like and and when you look at sort of what people were what position what what the salary was it people when people first started the their employment have their have their has the annual increase in compensation been Fair yes I I think the question on the table is though what is the process we're going to follow uh the first question is the budgeting process so do you want to budget without any salary changes like from last year is is so that's what you're advocating for what I'm understanding no there uh I mean I I think that the budget process works best when the operating but when it's most transparent the most transparent way to do it is when clean operating clean budgets Department budgets are presented without s individual salary requests so would that that would mean though taking like the salary line out of all departmental the salary line would be flat from last year right yeah and then then you want to have a note on the budget that says we're making a request to and then when we sit down and look at salary increases to include Cola we do all of them in a coherent way rather rather than like right now having a discussion about Cola when there's big missing chunks of yeah I I I agree that that complicates things to talk about single positions here and there um but but we just need a process we need a process and and now we have a committee and I think to me the process is cleanest and most transparent when you just keep salary increases out of the departmental budget requests like the actual numbers just stick a note on it and we'll decide and make your pitch and also when you're here talking about it make your pitch but we'll and and we when it's time to decide on salary we'll decide those things in a global all-encompassing way rather than peace meal I don't have I don't have I don't know how that but does that affect like contract negotiations where people come in specifically with like this is well that means that the budget process is is is uh Co coincident with the uh salary any any salary negotiations right and and yes salary negotiations as part of contract individual contract negotiations should take place after the budget is already pres presented as well after col after colum correct I agree totally totally agree and that yeah because it's all all these moving parts are related to each other MH and it's it works best when they're all considered in a way that acknowledges that so for next week I will take out any salary increase that was put in there and make sure it was all level with last year so that you'll have a clean that would be great be yeah yeah and salaries we can take a look at the wage because a lot of the cola especially is impacting on wages sure and yeah so like I'm talk about I'm sorry what else do we have I I feel like we had the preliminary Cola discussion y do you want to uh adjourn um anything else you want to discuss my thought would be for next week you want to talk about Cola but also you want to take a look at so you're going to present the new budget Rique in terms of keeping the salaried employees that are non-school at at level fund and then take a look the impact what what do you do yes yes I'll put that together for yes so but just to your point Alan I think March 28th is going to be the final piece of our budget when we're going to have well I'm sorry April 1st when we're going to have the school next week we're going to have the the tech those are the two big missing pieces to our budget right now once we have that information then I think it the number everything's going to fall into place where we can make the most take a look at maybe individual wage increases for the salary salary increases for the salar employees there were only two so um and one of them was just thrown in there is you know a placeholder for so that's easy enough for me to take out and just have a note on the side and then you will see on the tab that says article two everything will be there and you'll be able to see by Department you know all the changes so I'll have that for next week thank you that it that's it I make a motion to adjourn the finance committee all in favor thank you thank you everyone items not anticipated 38 hours Town Administrator update reg read everything do we add anything to that I just wanted to state that um I did put in a request for the board to consider a stipend for Ron so I just wanted to put that on the record that I've made that request to go on the agenda at some point yeah and this is for I'll put on record I'm in favor of it I would like to put on record too um that like I didn't realize what that number was I mean we talked in the past all of us about like possible compensation for his overtime that number came in way less than I thought it was going to be um so I'm I'm in favor of um of a retroactive payment and uh for Ron for all of the work that he's done above and beyond well we have to be careful on that I'm grateful for all that I'm grateful for all that I am very much oppos I very much opposed to that and I am not inclined to put that on the agenda anytime soon might not go anywhere because Phil it's not going to put it on the agenda but I I'm in favor and I there was I think lots of us lot I think it is our job to save the town money all of us I could the amount of money I save the town every year is amazing the amount of money Veron saves the money town every year is amazing none of us keep score and ask for S raises afterwards to compensate it I just want to say before we discuss it anymore on a legal front you can't state that you're giving somebody money for work done that they weren't paid for it has to be a um thank you for that it has to be a um performance-based decision I'm not sure it's definitely true you spoke with Town Council well you might want to ask her but I know in the corporate world you cannot do that right but that's different because I have spoken with a a number of different people just for folks that putting it on the agenda any okay but I I think it's worth clarifying yeah yeah I mean I there's that the word send was used um and it's been done in quite a few municipalities for so I don't think there's any issue whatsoever and just so people know this money would not come from taxpayers um in Conway residents it would be part of the $1.24 five million that was given to the town right so that does sound like a performance bonus which would be totally acceptable it's not a performance bonus no it's a whatever we call it I'm okay yeah I am okay with it um yeah I had two oh yeah so I had a question um not so much about your um can I just go get likeo comments yes of course um so I so the the pollinate Conway they're um the down spout at the town hall or town offices right I'm still a little bit confused about that like exactly what are they they asking do you know like do they just want to attach a a thing I I I wasn't totally oh for for a rain Garden there right so they I mean like they do they want to right so so is that is that something they it sounds like they're concerned about like the foundation of the building being you know destroyed by water coming down which is so are they proposing this as a solution to that they they also have wanted to take over that Garden the the garden that the landscape people put up with plants that fall from the truck um yeah um if you're talking about the the project that we're trying to look at right now yeah that's so that's part of the current MVP grant that there's $10,000 set aside to do a k through6 demonstration rain Garden if we could find a spot to do it they wanted to try potentially up at the grammar school but there really isn't a place for it there um and and so um I had reached out to um open space and pollinate Conway to see if there was another spot in town that would work for a very quick turnaround on a rain garden and did let them know that you know we're working on another mdp Grant which will have other possibilities in the future but this one has to be completed by June 30th right but it sounds like they still have like continuing concerns like they just wanted is that I don't know I I spoke with Ron and he said there's no water issues so that's not don't water issues in this building the corner of that building there's definitely water issues I mean that the the the down spouts not long enough the down spouts not long off the water the water it is a damp moldy basement because of other reasons too but that obviously is a problem just walking by there and looking at it you know obvious a problem if if they're willing to put a quick fix on there it like they just want to yeah there's mortar missing from the corner is there is there something we can do with that but that's not a rain Garden so no I know I know apart from that it seems like they're just concerned about like what's happening to the corner of that building and is that something that we can like prioritize like and they wanted to Garden they wanted to Garden that lawn and when they proposed that to us a couple years ago we said we got to do the that the handicap walkway first the walkway is done right and they they wanted to talk about doing that but even but whether whether the the you know redirecting that spout is part of a rain Garden or not is that something that we should be doing just to you know alleviate people's concerns that the building's going to crumble I mean that's the building won't crumble but it is causing a constant issue it would be an easy fix if they put a rain barrel catch right exactly yeah so so that and then uh two other questions um which I what delar Avenue which I know is just on the list of project that are going to be done um we just haven't had Highway Department that's been undera and and there's been other issues um with other rain events in town um and then an update on um bwell fa Bridge because because people they were like oh Mass dots in town which I know that's not a mass do thing technically like that's but but but it wasn't a stuff on their little road on their Road show and that's um that's something that people have been asking me about okay so delbar yes it's definitely still on the list for this year obviously we supposed to get done last year right yeah that's um so hoping to work on that or get started on that very soon they haven't finished they haven't awarded the design part of it yet though delar the the bwell fair Bridge oh Bell fair I'm talking about delar delar FR yeah that's just wait a minute it's it's been designed for years delar just a matter of like getting to it after like it would have been done if we hadn't had all the rain damage in July right right okay that's what I thought um same thing with the transfer station right um but bardwell's fairy bardwell's fairy the last I heard was the official letter we got that we were you know on the list and that that's pretty much it oh boy on a list I know is there um and I did speak with do Town Council and Ron and I met with um do to talk about the replacement Bridge the permanent Bridge that's going in on North Poland and I asked about guardwell sping and they were like oh it's not on my docket yet so I can I can follow up some more um or if I think it's a couple years if it's helpful for I mean maybe couple years down the road but that one I mean I don't know if there's anything that we can do like people that we can call any help that we can provide to expedite not sure they realize just how much slower our state police response is and and how much they are the primary backup for our town at night but I mean that's just like I I mean that was like one of my regular go-tos to I mean there there other ways to get out of Conway obviously but that was a very I mean we should team up with shelburn and buffin yeah because it's affec I mean that's that's that's a hi traffic um area that it's really especially with this summer we discussed that with at the Mima meeting and about how you know when if it comes to an evacuation route that was one of our right so I could um if you like reach out to shelburn and Buckland and see if they wanted to do a joint letter to try to push it Forward yes yeah anything that we can do to um get that road back open cuz let's face it they would benefit more from an easier access to us than we did today but what pizza at the end uh it's just a reminder that we got to put the frontier uh for next week the D and exess dispy stuff for Frontier you got to have a vote on that so you said that I know that the rain events push the transfer station um repavement but that's still on the books right for this year right okay yeah cuz they're getting worse oh I I know it's yeah it's a definite Hazard but yeah but we're still not done with all the roads that we're do from so you know we're down people and it's yeah do the best we can yeah yep for sure next year it'll be better bless you bless you a noble thought next year in Jerusalem there you go it's almost Passover yeah there you go there you go all right so um is there anything else we have to talk about no too bad motion to ader Second all in favor I