welcome everybody to the Monday June 3rd 6: PM meeting of the Conway select board here at Town Hall this meeting is being recorded live oning in progress ah it's being recorded live this Monday June 3rd meeting on FCAT and zoom if for any reason the recordings fail the live meeting will still proceed as scheduled um rather than start off with I call the meeting to order rather than than start off with M Lawrence since we have Karen Eldred here a uh a wonderful Library volunteer um we're going to ask her to speak about the season story walk presentations at Veterans Memorial Park with so the Town Administrator asked me to come in every time we do a story walk I email her and let her know yeah um and the last time she said well will you go in and say something to the select board so about 5 years ago David who was the past director at the library ask for story walks and rather than pay to create them the frontier Union district has an early childhood person who has like 40 of them prepared oh and I I've known her from the past cuz I worked in public school so I contacted her and we sporadically had them they were hard to coordinate with the director of the library he wanted the book whatever book we put out he wanted to have it the new director said I approached her again about story walks and the idea of having on a predictable basis and she was like go for it and I don't care what books you do so we're doing them for six months the third weekend of each month except for July when we're having two so these are the ones we're doing this year we do them on the veterans mall it's wonderful I don't know if you know what story walks are they're fabulous maybe just explain so people watching yeah what they are so those are that story walks this is the person from Frontier that I deal with so what they are is the union sponsors story walks in all the towns Conway is the only one who doesn't do it actually we have the least amount of Engagement with Early Childhood in the district of any other town so Amy and I have been just trying to find ways to bring it in most have um and it's all paid for it's free most towns have play groups for families of young children they have music events and they have story walks and a few other things so what they are so this past month was the Tiny Seed by Eric Carl which is appropriate for this time of year so it's just panels and it depends number of panels depends on the book that children walk along and read with their parents you know we put I put them up on Friday afternoons and I take them down at the end of the day on Sunday there's a bin that fits out there it's a clear bin it's got little activity kits in it that they can take um it helps us keep a little bit of a count but not everybody takes them so we're hoping by doing them on a predictable basis maybe over the next year or two then they'll be used more and if not if it's three kids a month who read that's you know anytime you get young children with their families to go and read a book it's worthwhile definely and there's a lot of adults that enjoy children's literature and Eno and enjoy these things I have to tell you I go to I go to all of these um and uh cuz I like children's literature um but I've never been the only one there when I've been when I've been there yeah I'm a big fan of children's literature too and Chris the assistant from the library who's there on Saturday said several times people have come in and thanked him for doing those nice so in a nutshell that's what they are and that's what we're trying to do enhance um literacy and young children and I think once you see the signs that the the yellow I think that there's a familiarity now that when the yellow lawn signs are up then right and we have three signs that we put up that say story walk this weekend with an arrow the only weekend they're not here is Festival weekend and they lead along the lower driveway to the community room where there's a book sale and last year there was a lot of um people who came into the book sale and said wow that's great I'm glad you you know you did that cool that's great yeah thank you so it costs nothing if the select board's ever interested in contacting Amy she really wants to try to get a presence in this town that she's struggled with you know I don't know why is she struggled with it what's the what's the struggle I I I don't really understand it and she's diplomatic you know so I don't know whether it's the school feels like they don't need it or there's I know the library David was hesitant to sponsor stuff so whether Phoebe will be more open to that than we're hoping what ideally would be wonderful for this town um is to have and every other week play group most towns have play groups for families of young children you know they're set up they're run by this woman or whoever is the coordinator for individual districts and they set up a play group with appropriate materials um parents babysitters grandparents show up with their children they hang out for two hours they play they do music they read a story they have a snack it's just a way for young F families of young children who are sometimes isolated to be able to come together yeah come together with the seniors I can see some Synergy there with on each the thing is so first of all Conway has like a a history of sort of being the uh The Outsider when it comes to the four schools in the sh sh Services um and we but we also have the best we the gold standard in terms of the elementary schools in the four my daugh went through the school I probably know more of the history yeah yeah but but like we have the fulltime Conway has a full-time reading reading specialist right and not all not all three of the other schools do um Conway has the full-time adjustment counselor right not um none of the other three schools have a full right but that's all ages and up yeah this program and Amy works with um families and children 0 through three yeah which is again like seniors an isolated group of people and um play groups tend to bring them together after I retired from public Ed I worked for Early Intervention which is birth through three through the Department of Health working with families who have children with special needs and we went to Story Hour I mean I mean um play groups all over with our children CU again talk about isolation if you have a CH child who's got special needs often you're even more isolated yes and play groups gave grow great role models they gave parents a ability to connect yeah so the social aspect alone seems like it'd be a huge benefit to young parents yeah so I think if that's something that someone were willing to kind of you know coordinate spearhead that I'm going to be seeing I'm going to be seeing Kristen next week the principal um I might call you to go and meet with her with me sure if I'm around I can do that um yeah there I think Sunderland story time or play group is held at Sunderland Elementary what did you want just my name just leave a message y Amy is really trying to engage with this town more like she does with the other three towns she do grant writing she brings in musicians for and she does a lot of great stuff and when I worked in public school I know families loved to them and when I worked in early intervention they were a valuable resource and even little towns like R have play groups we're com we pay 17% of her salary we're entitled to 17% of those Services yeah yeah I I think if we can but story walks is one way that we're hoping that this year we can finally get something established that's predictable yeah and will be ongoing every year some towns when I go hiking they have permanent storyboard panels or places set up and you just slide it in and then next month you take it out you put it in and it's up all month yeah Le on a hiking trail Leever has a trail that has that I saw right and I've taken pictures of those but that would take a pretty sizable amount of money plus a commitment for a town to have something permanently put in like South Meadow would be a cool place something they talked about that actually well catches on and we have a need to do that right sounds like a great first start to it's a great program um's been very supportive of it and ask me to come in thank you so much thank you byebye see you all right back to the top of the batting order uh vote to approve the minutes of May 28th anybody have any problems with them that cor fail look good to me so I move to approve second all in favor I I so the the have three warrants a pay uh accounts payable an amount of $145,300 payroll warrant the amount of $28,495 I saw them most of them were schools what's not schools is Thoroughly uninteresting not worthy of conversation um uh I move to approve the warrant say red second uh all in favor I I unanimous meetings attended by select board yeah meeting there you go that down there you go um and that was good it was good um unfinished business um discussion and possible vote on increasing fiscal year 24 Highway wages to the fiscal year 25 amounts that were just recently set by town meeting upon the passing of Article 2 for current Highway positions and for current job advertisements for open Highway positions so um the reason that this is before us is because next year next fiscal year doesn't start until July 1 right um so um so that would this would basically everyone up their salary June 3rd through the end of the month correct and um which would especially be advantageous well I mean for the current people of course but also for for the job posting that would be very helpful um and that we wouldn't have to wait until July 1 to do the posting um so and there is money in the fiscal year 24 Highway Department budget that is left um with one more month in that fiscal year there is more than enough money to pay these amounts that we would be what would be the date of the change it would be today it would be July 3rd I mean June 3rd well today was today was a payroll so it would probably be then then next payroll yeah two weeks I mean I would I would support making it retroactive to June 1st if that's I don't know if that makes a difference I'm not sure if we can do that okay um generally I know that that that came up a little bit in town meeting when there was a desire to do something retroactive and the lawyer said you can't you can't do anything retroactive what you can do is add more going forward right um but and that's that's just what's sticking in my head about that but I and I wouldn't have any issue with that but we don't yeah I don't want to Let's if if it's simpler just to start tomorrow and it's easy for Jan you fig today's sheets we're from the last two weeks of May right so the next will be from right you know today see but if we make this effective to it it's effective when we vote for it um Jan would just then have to pay extra and the next payroll to account like it it might mess Jan's payroll thing up but um I'm not so sure that they have to wait until the next payroll but um maybe we just vote it and then we can find no to today's payroll covered last up to Saturday yeah so and then the next payroll is in two weeks yeah and that'll be for this week and I mean I support this and I let's try to to vote and let Jan work Jan work out I mean she wouldn't have to go back right yeah okay so um I'll move to increase fiscal year 24 Highway wages to the fiscal year 25 amounts as recently approved on Saturday by town meeting in Artic upon the passage of article two for all current Highway positions and for the sake of the advertisements that are about to be posted for open Highway positions second all in favor I it's unanimous um review of annual town meeting I've been asked not to call this the autopsy but I like that term I don't know it's hard to give that up um I think I supp I think actually on the year yeah that's true I think it's actually one of the neat initiatives that we've done as a select board over the and other towns do not do this and we never used to do this we used to avoid thinking about we we used to just be so great was over that we would never think about it but I think it's Pro it's proved itself that I mean just from you know last year sitting down with the moderator um I think that that really was a beneficial thing for everybody to do it was um and uh you know one of the things that one one of the I was amazed at the absence of negative feedback um so that was like a first that nobody could nobody had really a snarky thing to say um and part of it was because the people that may have been inclined to say snarky things I saw them before town meeting and they're like you come in with a budget under 3% there's nothing I can like there's nothing I can piss and moan about if I can't stand up there and carry on what the hell's the fun of it so they didn't come um and you know but but part of it too is that um you know the budget was reasonable and I know I know it is an arbitrary amount that 3% but it's an important psychological arbitrary amount I totally agree I think everybody came prepared to I mean just the the the handouts and everything helped in a big way it did it did um and there there are connoisseurs of our town meeting there really are there's there's a few people that really really enjoy coming um and to hear from them that you know to hear from like the Peter jeswalds of the the world that this was the best runtown meeting that they were ever at it was the smoothest and that nobody said anything that they shouldn't have said right or that was inappropriate or that or that went longer than it had to or that it was shorter than it needed to be he was like it was just Flawless and perfect well we didn't talk a lot about pickle ball so my only thing I would say and there were people within our town government that was like that that went the pickle ball thing went on a long time um Jam's presentation was lengthy um passionate but lengthy yeah and and and like I the stuff always never ceases to amaze me that like $7 million budget Article 2 there's one feeble comment like basically barely a question it passes overwhelmingly with no discussion yeah and then the $99,000 the $9,000 street light study yeah well that doesn't matter cuz we have FK here yeah we said if something happens it and it always happens but the the $9,000 street light study that that took so much time yeah um yeah and I mean as far as like limiting the um you know the only I mean I I think would be I can see why Jimmy was kind of unable to like step in and like kind of limit that pi and like that's that was tricky I I just wonder if like you know like in the presidential debates they have like a clock like the timer right but I don't but you know maybe just in general people just ignore the clock though it's up to the moderator and we already had sort of he did have a stopwatch I saw he had a two-minute thing right but I I think sometimes the visual so people can actually see like they realize like oh I'm approaching my time I need to speed up um yeah and and and so that I mean I I had two suggestions one was if we have an issue like that where where people have already prepared the handout and basically the presentation is the handout when someone says you know when they get up to do the presentation like tell people like refer to the handout like everything that you need to know is here I don't need to read the whole thing I don't need to talk for 10 minutes um and then my other suggestion was to put all of that um all of the articles that are just kind of housekeeping that we do annually just lump those all together so that we can kind of get out just tell people okay the next five articles we do this every year and the explanation is here so read the explanation and if you still have questions after that you know ask a question that's a very good idea especially if it's a legal thing we have to do right is explain that this this is by law we have to do this so there's no question and not that we don't want to entertain questions but but so many of the questions people asked I was like like it's we it's if you read the hand you would had to ask that question so I so I think maybe just particularly for those ones that are just um you know routine housekeeping I'd like to see them all you know lump together at the at the front of and the related to that though I think you know this there was more of an emphasis on starting on time this year yeah and um which which was also good which is good but there were a few there were there was still a little bit of a line when we started quite a bit um and you know so so in progress you know the thing is that you're you're saying okay you want people there on time actually were there on time you want so what we really want is them people to come early right yeah and then we should be clear about that in the future starts at starts at 10:00 probably 10 get there by 9:30 if because we are handing out like this really useful handouts that everybody works really hard in creating um and you see people like hurrying into the room clutching them and they just don't have there isn't the time so like either we start either we like say we're starting at 10:00 but don't really start till 5:00 or 10 after like or right or we say be there at quarter of 10 and start we start at 10:00 but like we should we should factor in like the 5 minutes or so for people to read the stuff once they sit down and um we didn't so that was like that's even something we can put on the sandwich part of the you know 9:45 yeah are you writing these notes down you write these notes down literally is only job well no I know I know I know um well CU you're coming up that was a good idea and then you're like how can you say that idea and write that idea at the same time because he wrote it before he said it okay that makes sense and we we did have a couple people who came in at the end and and the our pool workers weren't there to deliver clickers so bar had to go out so I think that we just need to clarify too someone said Oh I thought I could come in at any point and vote on anything I wanted so um I think we just maybe make that you know more that like that you can like after 10:30 I mean I don't know I actually don't know that'd be probably a question for barque and Lori but I don't know at what point the you know our poll workers came in to sit and actually participate and we're there to hand out clickers yeah it's a good point but if we have that schedule we can just make that clear so show up by 10:30 otherwise you know no vote for you right well yeah but the um I the thing that the the new instru the moderator instructions in the beginning were really good yeah um and it worked like even and and I was I I was happy to see that like even the very last article the people like kept that two-minute thing in mind and um I was grateful to see how the town treated the seventh grader with respect and like didn't you know at like like what happened in Deerfield did not happen here um and um and I also afterwards I loved her comment and she you know she was like there were so many more people here than in any of the other two towns I was it was really scary I never talked to that many people before in my life what a great experience for her because emotion passed yeah um so I thought I thought you know I thought just the whole thing the whole thing was about as good as it's going to get it's all downhill from there we're only getting better we're learning and like Jimmy stated the two equipment the microphone Runners I thought sped it up quite a bit to yeah that was absolutely both of them yeah Adam thank you Troy thank you um that definitely was good that was definitely good and um you know and being able to being able to get it done without having to take a break and without that without having to take that food Andor right like that was also key it was just a little over 2 and a half hours right yeah that yeah and that is pretty good for that many articles that's pretty good um I think it helped that it was a gorgeous sunny day and people wanted to get out of there but I was actually I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people did show up cuz it like you know at 5 to 10 I was like no one's that's true we should have opened up all the doors and had people outside running through like like Sprinklers and ice cream just keep passing by looking inside and looking nice that's a cute that's cute and I I think this this speed up yeah when when the clickers are so when the clickers are working and they were working it um it really saved a lot of time oh yeah and this was one of so it it was NE getting feedback from Darius and from um you know the people that go to all the town meetings and that Jessica Corwin the school committee adviser on the last article yeah um she was like I never was at a meeting with the clickers they saved so much time and the time that they saved is like dead time where people have nothing to do really and um and they just if people are frustrated about something the frustration they stew in their frustration like answer but the way that when you're able to just have a vote and within like 5 Seconds you're able to start with the next one the whole T and just go on to the next one we were we were like moving through those things um it's like a well oiled machine like a well oiled machine and sum summarizing long red articles was also helpful yeah well that was the Town Council saying it's okay to do that if you want I was like okay good idea and it it was helpful that she was there because she you know yeah I think she should come to each one for sure definitely I like why do we never have her there before uh yeah um well she couldn't she had a larger last year she had a larger town that had the same dat that's right I know she's had a lot going on too like everyone else small Town's kids the short sh like everything else but um and then yeah no no and year before that her husband yeah she yeah that's right but that was great love to have Donna back from the next one yeah social to me so that I thought you know it went well it was pretty cool and was nice getting feedback to that that you know that recognizes everybody's hard work and um everybody's you know there's a lot that goes into it it's just crazy how much goes into it and you're like what do you mean how can there be no Article 2 we spent six months on my God the Blood Sweat and Tears that go into Article 2 like how could there be no questions come on people ask questions like but but now it was it was good yeah yeah it was cool it's all good um and uh anything else anybody want to add about that like I think as far as autopsies go is about the kindest one that we can come up with there's really really nothing quick postmart morm excuse me yeah postm there you go much nicer um items not anticipated 48 Hours anybody nope Town Administrator update vation the um select board member comments concerns I am not not very pleased with um the responses of next St and uh eversource eversource um this the planning board and I are discussing um what options we have yeah so this is you know it's this is an interesting thing because um when when the the last time I was with a couple months ago last time I was with the a member of the select board from each of our neighbor the three Frontier towns we all have solar arrays now MH and um it turns out that nexamp is like the only one that returns calls at all yeah um maybe not timely but yeah and and like and there are um and and we were talking about um what's the big big I think Pittsfield Pittsfield has like a huge one the company that got that contract as soon as all the stuff was signed and the thing got plugged in they um they closed down their Massachusetts office like the phone numbers are dis you know disconnected and they're back to it was it was all just like a shell front for like whatever giant Texas multinational you know whatever and um and like you can't get them and and and they did a they actually put their arrays down so much that the snow there's like big big problems with snow buildup um and like messing up the arrays and shorting stuff out and like um and you can't they can't even get anybody on the phone even if they are the better than the other companies it's still very low bar I know and like my concern is if they did actually power it back up again and did not notify the residents yeah they didn't give or the town they didn't give anyone no plan whatsoever to shut it back to avoid the same yeah horrific scenario that happened before that is totally unacceptable yeah so there is um a a one of the select bird members in a neighboring town is quite the expert on all the minutia of the rules and regulations and state Public Utilities Commission stuff I would like that contact info and uh you know and he's like you know you're really at the the the the way all of these things are written is for the benefit of Industry that that we forget when Governor Deval Patrick in a budget saving move um closed the Office of Public Advocate rate payer public Advocate which represented the public in all of these things so um you're just left with regulations that are very industry fa favorable um and the the the role of the select board actually legally is over once we reach the agreement the 20-year agreement with them which was four years ago right we actually have no statutory the select board has no statutory or regulatory role I figured that was the case from what we've discussed before and talking to council but I still want to kind of be a megaphone for these no I know the planning board still theor ially has you know open terms and conditions on you know um permits Etc and is the one that could theoretically take action on behalf of the Town they're the only the only one but what I did not like is the eversource representative communicating to a resident that they are in touch with the Town Council um is that true well the Town Council in our is a lawyer the town that so Our Town Council no but they're not they were not in touch with they meant c u n c i l is how they spelled it like and so they're confused referring to the select board um and and that you and she was trying to Slough off the questions from her to the select board and like knowing that the select board has no we're just like them we we write to them and we hope that they answer us um but they're my understanding is that and I'm really pretty sure of this is that they have no obligation to respond to our concerns or right that they've already got all the permitting necessary to plug in and go well wasn't it um was it shutesbury or there was another town that that our that our town lawyer represents where the planning board tried to change the bylaws so that they could kind of like I mean having had a solar array put in they tried to change the bylaws to make it more advantageous or you know give homeowners res it's more rights and um and and there was a lawsuit and and they lost well well one of their members is one of our members now so I can ask him um I well I don't know if it was sh I remember I read it in the recorder I had a brief conversation proba was shury it probably was shutesbury but I was like dang like you know I mean they just literally wanted to update their bylaws and the Solar Company was like you know argued against it now like the reason that they stopped is is because the levels there the apparently the harmonic convergence levels are a regulatory thing and they exceeded the permissible limit so um they stopped but before any enforcement you know but so like so who tested it it can't be them testing it it was them testing they're testing their own regul or nexam no it was nexam see that doesn't make any no like you know but that's part of like the whole like our whole setup as a small town in which you have a planning board um that does not have a budget for you know Health testing of any kind does not have a budget for uh you know lawsuit eventualities the hiring of counsel Etc does not have any like reserve funds for any eventuality like that and so you know there's an argument to be made that you know the regionalization of town governments for the purposes of Permitting these things so that we are we can be in a better position to there there may come a point in time when like eversource NEX amp says no no no we tested it it's good to go but residents are like it's just as bad as it was and I'm having all these health problems um then what do we do yeah I mean can you even legally get somebody a third party to come in there and perform the same test if it's not if it's not approved by next stamp or eversource that's crazy that's like a grocery store stamping their food good to go yeah with bypassing the FDA that makes no sense I mean the Public Utilities Commission has staff that can do these things the state regul all these things are just regulated by the state which means that the town can't really regulate on that gr granular level I'm going to do some digging this is crazy um but the Public Utilities Commission does have a significant budget and they do have health experts and they do have they do test these things but um you know and they do have the ability to punish or F or pull licenses from companies that you know exceed permissible limits which is why those companies have a vested interest in self report in when you know and doing like honest testing and all that but you know we're not privy to that they don't call us up and say come look at the test as they come in here's the limits well they didn't provide any reports they just said done they said everything is good to go you know said they provided a report and I read through the whole thing and there was no testing on whatsoever and that's you know part of it is if an eversource engineer actually talks to people they'll get fired like they have to go through public relations by the time that happens everything's been sanitized and lawsuit proofed and um etc etc corporatized corporate Communications and you know so you get these bullet lists that are relatively devoid of information well it's certainly a lot less information than that company engineers at one time had but yeah um okay I'll look it's a tough thing because the residents end up like upset with us oh I know and like you're you're like our our our role ended when we signed the agreement and by the way they're still paying the town um even those two years that the thing was shut off we still got our money right um and and that had significant financial impacts for that company because when they signed a contract with us within a week they sold the entire lifetime power output of that facility on the open market and so um they actually had to make good on that to whoever they sold it to under the terms of their contract so they actually lost significant amounts of money doing that um I'm sure they have plenty yeah I'm I mean I'm sure they profited they're making free electricity I mean like I'm sure it wasn't like but they did lose um some so you know it's in their own fiscal interest to be on the up and up and get it up and running as soon as they could and the fact that it took them two years to me is like that had to be a serious problem right like which a problem that doesn't seem like they've actually resolved according to the residence of that neighborhood yeah I mean if it's true that they turned it on I mean it it seems more than um more than just like coincidental timing yeah and if it's if it's related to the topography or the nature of the Bedrock and the mineral nature of the Bedrock whatever which to me like if it doesn't happen hardly forever yeah and they don't really know why it happens still and they're like well sometimes equipment can go faulty and that's why we both lived in Pennsylvania ringing rock yeah right right yeah yeah that's a thing can happen so I um anyway sorry yeah no no I mean that's that's a real thing that's a real thing um you know and then the other the other the other SEL board member uh comment just to dtail with the mail is the request um that you all saw the email from uh from Lori block about having hired an engineer yes yes to uh that was surprising yeah to they uh and and wanted input on the MVP or the that the the GZA report that we've commissioned for the drainage of the town roads on P Hill um and I did ask uh I did ask rnie to you know respond like favorably to that that it's to me that's like the best way to go like the remember when that other resident on Pine Hill uh the pineal area when she retained a lawyer first thing first thing I did was invited them to speak publicly right and you know that to me the way you avoid lawsuits of that nature is you M you you you have the person felt listen to and the way you have them feel listened to is by actually listening to them um so I and it it seemed like the engineer just wanted the copy like a couple of questions and a copy of the GC report and yeah like he wanted a couple of questions um Bernie wanted to wanted to um run it by Town Council first um and she did and Town Council said yeah we can call him back but she's on vacation so I was just going to I didn't want to wait the week I don't I I don't know what that she doesn't have access to email Bary oh she probably just isn't checking it but it could be reasonable for one of us to send the report or for Adam I mean right and bary's absence to well we they're writing the report it's not the report's not done they want oh I I thought they wanted the like the original oh you just want to respond saying yeah sure no problem is that what you're saying when the reports available no I wanted I wanted to like give the engineer the number for Rosie from GC and to let Rosen Ros saying he's going to be called and just answer his questions Yeah by all means yeah why not yeah yeah so that's what I'll do that tomorrow but I just wanted to arify you yeah I think that makes sense all right and um yeah and that's that's that I think so um yeah so uh announcements the next meeting is June 17th 2024 which will be a reorganization of the select board I hope I hope I'm with you on that meeting I don't it's an election never oh you should remind people Thursday so early voting is happening it's on the town it's on the to tomorrow Wednesday um and the town election is Thursday 11 to 7 and uh yeah um yours truly is running for real ction and um and according to uh Chris larby it is the first three-way select board contest in anybody in the Recorder's new newsrooms recollection whoa that's exciting um are they all 30 no there's been a lot of three-way races for school committee for planning board Etc but never that anybody could remember for select board so so there you go there you go it's why I don't gamble on these sorts of things though um so that's um yeah yeah and with that and um just everybody you do you do want to be here on the 17th for reorganization it's also usually when appointments are set for next year too that's a big we'll be doing have that's a big'll be that's a big um usually tends to be the longest meeting of June because lot of lot of stuff design so with that I'll see you at the polls motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second and um yeah thank you everybody I don't get to meet with you every week I will miss you all