as the acting chair of the S board I'm going to call this meeting to order um this is the Monday June 17th meeting of onway Select board there's a joint meeting with capital and finance committee at 6:30 um being recorded on FCAT it's also available on zoom and if the zoom fails for any reason which it has in the pass this meeting will still proceed um all right first item on the agenda is vote to approve the minutes of June 3rd 2024 I look them over they're good as always I'll make a motion to approve second all in favor I I um okay warrants we have accounts payable warrant in the amount of $813 70 payroll warrant the amount of $148,300 payroll deduction warrant in the amount of$ 34,848 and I looked those over they were pretty boring so uh move to approve the warrants second all in favor I I okay meetings attended by select board members um we went to North Poland Road Urus to discuss the uh solar array problems that have been uh going on there uh that with the um the neighbors that are within the vicinity of the paray got a lot of great information there's still additional um communication that needs to be had between us and eversource but uh I thought it was a good meeting and um we at least see that there's some Focus from ever Source on helping resolve the issue yeah I was really pleased by their response and attention I think was just that was Thursday am I that feels like it was two weeks ago it's it's still not up and running right they shut it off well we don't know no and they don't know if they can tell us or not right the neighbors believe that it's up running but we don't actually have any confirmation of that so but did you hear buzzing well that was the main topic was the feedback and there's some theories about how that feedback might their residents uh could be happening but um uh it's on ever Source now to kind of investigate and figure out the cause mhm or at least find the break point of where the cause is happening because if it's with the solar array then it's up to them yeah to to come up with the resolution okay but they seem pretty responsive the two ever Source Engineers Representatives they an out I was pleas surprised I think that's it for me yeah okay um public comments here for public comments I don't believe so no unfinished business so new business um pending our last election we have a new member of the select board Campbell I'm currently the chair because I was the deputy chair prior to um this last election um but now it's time to elect a new chair and I would like to nominate um Chris Baldo as chair of the select board uh will second that all in favor hi hi hi thank you Chris oh yeah it's an honor well earned take it away all right um also so we have to elect now yeah it's his now oh okay do you want to remain Deputy given this is El's first year I'm happy to remain Deputy chair okay so I'll make a motion to vote uh Eric Goldman as the deputy chair of the select board I will second that all in favor I I I which means that Elaine probably has to be clerk is that what the term is isn't there I don't think no I think we've only had the the chair and ADV Vice or Deputy chair CU you know I know I was like uh well one of the first things I wanted to do since um we have a new member is open the table to you to either discuss um uh you know what you love about Conway what you'd like to see this board do what your ideas are or if you don't want to say anything uh well I did meet with our Town Administrator uh and got briefed on some things that are are up and coming or going on um so that was good so um I also have lived here for almost 30 years so also know a lot of things that are going on uh whether they're formal or just informal um but yeah I'm interested to hear from I'd like to get all our board positions filled that's really a priority um cuz I think we have to get new energy um on our committees um it was good to see we got a a school committee person voted in even though it only took a few votes but hey a few votes matter right um so anyway glad to be here and I'm happy to help in any way again great I also wanted to um make sure that each member of the board is an emissary to other committees and Boards or at least the larger um ones that we deal with on on a regular basis um I've already been kind of working with both Ron and um Don so I figured I could just keep that going where I can be the the go-to for the police department and the highway department mm I thought it would be a good idea Erica since you're good at um getting the word out socializing and and advertising that it might be good for you to work with Bob um because his main problem is getting volunteers sure and maybe there's some idea you could come up with to help him with volunteer volunteering Ela you're already part of the school board that has the school board y it would only make sense for you to be the communication with the select board and the school board absolutely and um outside of that really I you know we have obviously EMS but there's really not a whole lot going on there I could stay in contact with them as well since I'm also part of the Capital Improvements committee so I'm okay with taking all on all of that I was a member of conom for like 9 years so if they need somebody thatd be great um still remember some of those things yeah um actually you and I can both tax that since I have experience um in my personal personal life for that um c um I don't know if somebody wants to be a like who wants to do with Lori um good point so abused um probably either you or me cuz we live close by yeah I'm happy to pH is the to sure yeah we'll make Erica Erica has more tolerance for me than you do I'm also happy to do it at any point um we'll just end up talking I can also take the transfer station I'm always talking to the guys up there yep I mean of course I'm still going to be communicating with everybody but I think this is great um do we want to talk about the um emergency contact um I cannot remember the name the N clature EMD oh are EMD yes yeah yeah um you know Amanda right yeah yeah if you're doing fire yeah that makes sense it kind makes sense to you okay with that yeah I'm totally and that kind of that kind of brings in ambulance as well basically so right yeah so yeah EMS then for Erica cuz Jim and Chris don't really need a whole lot usually but you never know um we don't have to vote on those right it's just delegating yeah just and then Lori sir did you want to resend the discussion and vote I actually don't because we're so close to the end of the fiscal year mhm that I mean and there's still a lot of State deadlines that I have to be in my office for I'm just afraid that no matter how hard I try I might not be able to take everything I have okay so I would still like to request that you allow Jan to roll it over just in case I can't take it all this is um elain this so this is uh for rolling over PTO as opposed to okay got it um you know we don't need to say too much on this but you know we're very lucky to have a local town adman and a local town clerk it's pretty rare nowadays so um and they've been with us for a while so I see no issue with this so I'll make a motion to vote um to allow the town clerk to uh use vacation rollover is there like a period of time that is extended for or is it just you can only you can only use roll over from the prior year correct you're only supposed to be able to roll over 50% of what you've earned each year but I have just over a week more than that 50% that needs to be used by when that would have had to be used by the end of this month and that's what I'm asking to be rolled over because of unforeseen circumstan roll over an additional week right for year for fy2 right and I'm going to try to take it off right but I just can't guarantee it so in my motion and can I clarify something there you can roll over everything that you get for a Year's a Year's worth yeah Jen gave me a number of that I'm going to an amount that I'm going to lose if I don't use it by the end of the month I'm just saying you said only half you could roll over you can roll over a full Year's work okay I just don't take enough vacation time like I never take vacation obviously this is us telling you to take some vacation yeah so added to my motion is an additional week that was going to be lost by the end of this month yeah yeah second I have no problem with that at all all in favor I I I thank you guys unanimous thank you Lori thanks for working so hard all right next on the agenda is the discussion vote on clarification of guidelines for public comments I sent a draft very BT yeah okay which just out which and this was taken from Bary had shared some stuff from various um several different towns so this is just kind of I don't know if you all had a chance to look at that but um I should probably read these aloud for the public correct yeah I mean and this is just the this is just the proposal basically this okay so in this proposal it states the select board May Reserve time for public comments on its open meeting agenda at each meeting the purpose of the public comment period is to bring matters of public interest to the attention of the board public comment sessions are for speakers to address the board on matters that are not related to any other agenda item if a speaker wishes to address the board on a matter related to an agenda item the chair May accept public comment when that agenda item is reached during the meeting persons may speak upon the permission of the chair of the select board and must stop speaking upon the request of the chair individuals should identify themselves by full name and address so it's very similar to town meeting it's yeah basically um during public comment portions of the meeting members of the public are allowed up to two minutes to speak may speak only once and only when recognized by the chair and may not yield time to another speaker public comment sessions are limited to 15 minutes total it's a very important distinction there uh redundant comments are discouraged if multiple speakers wish to talk on the same subject they are encouraged to choose one spokesperson all speakers must present their remarks in an orderly and Peaceable manner without disruption to other speakers and must refrain from making any personal impertinent unduly repetitive or slanderous remarks speakers are further encouraged to respect the views and opinions of others including members of the select board and the General Public public comment is not intended for the select board debate with the general public for meant to answer questions without the time needed for proper research answers shall be provided as soon as possible to the inquiring party it is the chair's responsibility to ensure that personal matters and personalities are not discussed nor shall unprofessional or un excuse me unsubstantiated comments be accepted um clearly there's reasons for this um so I I think this is a great outline Erica thank you for writing that up um and yeah you're all you're doing is clarifying what already exists in town town meeting rules yeah they're basically the the town meeting roles and I guess I had I mean yeah barque was the one who pointed out that we didn't actually have any like real public comment rules um so I think the main difference is that like some of the towns said you know there will be public comments at every meeting I said May cuz I feel like that should be you know at our discussion like budget season Maybe when it's like when we have you know those are super long meetings we may not want to entertain public comment and I think it's really important to limit it um I think one of most of the other towns was either three minutes per speaker and a total of 15 minutes or a total of 20 minutes I felt like this was I don't know if you need more than two minutes to say what you want to say I think you need to think a little harder then come back school committee got better you know better at that that when we were all virtual with everybody had something to say about Co yeah um but we didn't actually limit time but I like limiting time and like that's what we do at town meeting too like you know you say what you have to say once because then you have to think ahead what you're going to say and be succinct yeah versus just rambling right and we do want to encourage people to be able to come and talk but we should also encourage um civility yes and to stick to the subject because often times it goes off off subject I think of a few select board meetings in the recent past yes and I think especially when we have joint meetings with other committees that are meant to start at a specific time it's very important to respect the time of the rest of our committee members yep but so and that includes basically everybody except the select board when the select board speaking you know you recog somebody to speak like I just chimed in so I would probably go me I say something well you know yeah it's up to it's up to the boarding as part of like public yeah yeah you're right but I mean and I think the other thing too is like it's not that's this is it's not meant to be a period of open debate it's for people to you know raise issues and for us to be thoughtful about but not necessarily engaged and for me to shut it down if I see it going off for else right yeah right yes well it's not it's not public comment period you're the Town Administrator okay I just didn't want you know I want to um this is an agenda item yeah no I think this is this is excellent would you like me um to take this to Town Council for her review and then get back to you if she has any comments about it sure um yes but I mean this isn't a it's not really a policy though is it I mean it's more okay yeah and when I did speak with her before because of certain First Amendment rights things that are going on in this Arena she said that it was very important for the board to have Clarity on what policy you wanted then it's easy to draft but because of that I I just would love to have her review it and give it her blessing okay so I think the vote should be for the council to review not for us to vote on this until Council gets back to us so I'll go ahead and make a motion hold on one second um are your meetings can people speak remotely yeah yes all in person okay no it can be over so with school committee we said if you were speaking remotely you had to contact the superintendent ahead of time that you want you planned on having time that's a good point you were requesting time because we may or may not notice they have a comment but it's also and it also goes back to them identifying themselves of who they are where they live without just that screen name and a blank screen on there right so it's just how to work that in could we say at the beginning of each meeting you know if you're joining us on zoom and you wish to make a comment during public comment please raise your hand because I'm always watching the screen anyway okay so you because I have to let people in so I've always got to keep my eye on it so I could you know somebody raises their hand and if I miss it he'll that's me okay I have a suggestion somebody run a timer yeah yeah I think that's that's important too you know what I'll get one for here that we can put up there phone yeah I'll actually get one so did you make a motion Chris uh no um I will make a motion to allow ver Nate to um send these bulletin points to Town Council so we can vote on it later second all in favor I unanimous moving on uh the next item on the agenda is to vote on the annual appointments and there are quite a bit so I'll just read through them are you the only one who sign uh I'm the only okay for the cable advisory committee the one and only Bob Armstrong Cemetary commission still Jack Harrison who's done an excellent job Community preservation committee Donald jman did I say that right Community preservation committee William Mobius also the community preservation committee Carolyn theer also on thee Community preservation committee Jack frell Council on Aging Robin jks Council on Aging Henry Horseman Council on Aging Gail Connelly cultural councel Stein Pike cultural councel Joan Haley cultural councel so Michelle Michelle FR my neighbor ni open space committee Janet Chase uh open space committee Amy Anderson there was one or two committees that were all that's I ask uh open space committee Michelle tour Parks and Rec Recreation committee Julie sweet public buildings committee Chris Herman public building committee can I always mess up his name oh we met we met these French names uh sustainability committee jod L Town Treasurer Janice Warner now how long is that these I think with Jan and Lori it's because of their positions and they need to be appointed periodically so okay because we did away a while ago we did away with appointing staff members but hers is a special position hers and laor is treasure collector got it okay well speaking assistant Town Treasurer Lorie Hall and that is it um I vot we approve the annual appointment as readed know second oh yeah okay oh I read this as well we need to appoint somebody from yeah oh yes the Franklin Regional County of government's um um representative so is that the one you said that you could do but you can't the meeting on the yeah I me because I I have been the deputy or whatever the alternate and i' I've attended per clog meeting so I'm I'm totally fine being the representative I just definitely cannot go to this particular meeting on Thursday it should be recorded if it's not I'll take copious amount of notes so you're going to go I will go the alternate okay so Erica is the you and Chris is the question from John yes sir is there a Personnel committee appointment I didn't see see that I didn't have any um my term my my appointment to the Personnel committee was just ends this month say this sounds short we because because we were staggering them oh all right right and my appointment was only for the remainder of this year and the the plan was if nobody else stepped up that you could I'd be open to reappointment but I understand that Stephanie RoR has raised her hand oh yes for I'm sorry for which committee personel committee oh okay there's one board appointed position and I'm that that position but I understand that Stephanie's raised her hand and she wants to serve on Personnel committee okay and I'm perfectly willing to step aside to let Stephanie take on because I think it's not really appropriate for Phyllis and I both to be on the same committee anyway okay all right so we'll put her on there are some appointments that we're doing next next meeting to be put there were a few that had to be put off yeah that's fine I'm just curious um again I move that we um approved the appointments as read including the per C all in favor I I I unanimous 6:24 about that 6 minutes early so maybe we can talk about [Music] uh items not anticipated 48 hours in advance um vote and sign on the Sol Solid Waste Management District contract for fiscal year 25 not much we can do there so um I looked it over it's the numbers uh Jan prevented uh presented to us prior um so I'll make a motion to vote inside and sign the Solid Waste Management District contract for fiscal year 2025 I'll second all in favor I I I unanimous and maybe we should save the uh priority list um for after there was a second thing that came up oh oh okay it was the um it was um the highway oh the bud yeah yeah do you have that I do okay um let's get to that this was the vote that the board already took but we didn't have a specific Breakout by I'm so sorry Ron is that why you're here one of the reasons okay but that's on the finance committee yeah shouldn't we have that on the finance committee no this is you're setting a salary this is nothing oh no I'm looking at this I'm sorry I'm looking at the wrong thing oh yeah do I have that in front of me I don't okay um so this is pretty basic we're not changing any of the actual um uh hourly wages it's just about how Ron can post or pay based on licenses and um um competencies with uh obviously the licenses and the CER certifications experience in experience right so did you want to discuss this or you just want me to read through this it's pretty basic yeah it's very basic so it's just a breakdown of the approval for clarification on um how Ron can um either post or pay um members of the highway department based on their licenses so for 2B hoisting licensed can we read these out loud right it's fine if we read these out line okay it would be $23 that's that's it we're talking CDL license drivers right so commercial driver's license um licenses 2A what does 2A refer to all right so 2B is required at least within 6 months of being employed but that is a requirement for to have be a CDL driver you also need a minimum for a hoisting license of a 2B which is to run the bucket load um 2A which is an additional 50 cents that has two-way hoisting licenses so you can run an excavator and a 4G which is another 50 cents if you have that license is for our over the fence more and there's a note here that says a minimum of three years experience as a CDL driver right is $3 more so the base base to start um the minimum is a CDL Class B with a class um 2 2B license for $23 got it so our pay rate is between 23 and 27 right so the max is still 27 which was already approved this is just a breakout of the pay scales so effectively we just established a salary B yes right based on experience or wage B right right so I see no issue with this I'll go ahead and make a motion to vote um for the uh to to vote for the highway department to be allowed to use the breakouts of the Pay Band pay SC for each employee second all in favor I I unanimous can I ask more question so I'm assuming this will carry over to job descriptions like be permanently memorialized in job descriptions no I don't think so no this will just be our our internal yeah this a pay scale is this is outside yeah yeah all right well that ends our uh ant unanticipated items and we are one minute away from The Joint Committee with the finance [Music] commit we do not have Forum so yeah is royin Roy said he would try to zoom in um I don't know if let's talk about priorities I mean the only part that you would have to have a quum for is for yeah that one you have yeah so just so I'm I'm not skipping over because R is sitting here waiting patiently we can't do anything without the forum for the finance committee to discuss this item correct right you can't it can't be signed I mean the board can't but the finance committee can't until they have a quum is so let's just wait then yeah um but Ron is also here to talk about priorities too okay so well why don't we open the floor to our Highway super slot on I mean the the idea is just to you know it now that budget season's done Town meeting's done it just seemed like a good time to sort of sit back and go okay what's risen to the top in the town for what needs to get done and have everybody just put out ideas as what the priorities are and then you can so direct I'm going to get my timer real quick make it fast like so the highway priorities are the BR you don't say are you sure well there's probably a few other things that have involved in that um for this year our major projects are well we have doar AB that we have a FEMA grant that hopefully got postponed and been asking we applied for a extension and I don't think we've heard back right but I've been filing the quar Le and there doesn't seem to be any issues with that so that is a big priority upper Baptist actually all the streets on that side are a priority this year um Cemetery Hill Baptist upper Baptist IES and Delaware the rest of Delaware Emerson no no it's Gravel Road okay but um with the study there gz TOS holding me back for moving forward with anything like this until we get their feedback back I don't know how we're going to move forward um doesn't seem to be any major issues with water um so the the residents up there who have hired their own environmental engineer as well is that I mean I'm assuming that they're going to be in contact with G but well so yes and they have and I spoke with Rosal today um because the residents were interested in at what point if they could give some feedback but the thing is that study is about public infrastructure so really the only point point at which um the the residents will be involved is when GZA actually does the public forum with the select board to report on what they found so and was the person that they hired were they a hydro expert civil civil engineers civil engineer different yeah when you're talking what the town is paying to have done and then you start putting private it becomes an issue because now you're it's not a bad thing to look at but it you got to be careful with what happens that you're not doing something to favor certain residents yep agreed fly agreed may I ask a question about that area sure the the rubble pile up that's at the triangle by George's just haven't had time to get it out okay I was wondering if there was there for a reason no just the time and and that's hopefully with what we just um the pay scale M the pay raises hopefully I'm hoping within months at least we have one more employee okay um we are actually one of my labor positions the one that does uh building maintenance he's retiring the end of this mon so okay so now I got three position things are being difficult to get done yeah CU there's so much other stuff that's going on there can you hire temps I do have a temp right now um tired finding an attemp was licenses that can drive what we have to drive the problem a lot of times with tempts with CDL is you got to train or for what we do and that takes time so you have hemp and you spend the time and then they're only here for a short period of time we had that issue with just hiring a normal full-time employee and they don't work out you wasted all that time so it's hard I'm hoping to pay that's May is going to make a difference but just about every town around in the last month has been looking for CDL Drivers and most towns have been increasing their pay as well yes so there's going to be competition yes and we may be on the low end again yeah isue um other projects well we just chip sealed old Cricket Hill to the dump and South Shire Road them both were paved two and a half years ago they needed to have a top put on P and then we did the other end of sh Pauls road which was starting to get a little r should have been done last year but we don't know how last year went um other projects all the streets um also in the streets that I'm hoping to do something with is Parsons Road Elm Street and the black dot section of reeds bridge on the so hopefully 60% of our streets will be oh in Orchard Street in Mania oh yeah so they're all in in there um a lot of work to be done but we still have have storm damage it where a lot of work that needs to be done with that um speaking of that um how how's Conway Station Road now passible that is pass I just know it's it was I don't know if the tuing company is still running or whatever but they run bands up and down that road and we this spring we got it so it was fairly decent and then well you had a pretty major storm there this spring and it developed a major sink right it washed out at the beginning first at the end it always washes out but at the beginning it washed out it just oh that's what that was yeah so we fill that back in um joint starts talking storm damage Paving we need to fix what Maxim did Mass doot did I should say on Main bman Road so they're coming in the end of this month to put an overlay on chap PA's I think it's 240 ton I think it's like 1300 ft up the hill straighten that M up the road was pretty decent before the start and also we're going to do overlay on hel Road wi out pretty good yeah and the other thing is with hopefully with the money transfer um dep fa from Shon Paul to to County Station Road U let's see what else plenty other projects um does your team do the mowing too or do you subcontract the mowing it's a lot do a lot could you subcontract that you don't I mean I know a lot of guys in town do Lo so you problem is you get into prevailing wage and all that stuff and becomes very expensive the prevailing wage laws have really they really started hitting was hard with have we had any complaints about the mowing cycles for the ball field since we are doing less no but the we have a new contractor this year and I can't tell when it's all over the place when you down there home really but the cemetery next to me looks great looks better than it's almost ever looked I don't know who's doing that one has nothing to do oh somebody else does that yeah that's a private the one by you and the one on J Ball you wow there it's better than it's looked in years talk said yeah really good speak is there is there still a plan to have a monthly report on the highway department uh activities and priorities as was set forth last year yes but I'm going to be the liaison so I'll do that with at the highway department Ron doesn't have to keep coming in here right right that's fine yeah and I have I have a question so like I wrote down 10 projects like are these ranked like what are the top top three what are the top five and are there budgets for each of these projects like you know ours you know problems capacity we're waiting on so many things for a lot of them right so we're still waiting on the GC for the Baptist Hill area FEMA for delar FEA forar we would potentially oh so that that would that would impact what could be done up there is that correct so we wouldn't have a budget a firm budget there'd be no point in doing it time know what right but there a lot of these projects that we do Ron you have a pretty good idea because this goes back to what you've been doing your whole life so um do you have like budgets set out for this the section of shelburn Falls Road like you're using this 85,000 I think it is that we're talking about tonight to to pave that section so fair yeah I guess where where I'm going with this is one of the concerns you we we all agreed on the the pay increase cuz we know how important is to get your your team staffed up and you've been working with a skeleton crew and so you've had no no capacity internal and you've had to assume all that yourself and one of the things I think we should agree on is that that a top priority let's staff up the department as best we can given the resources we have but we also have to understand what the capacities of the department are where they're going to be allocated so that you know we have these other side projects going on do you want to open your committee yeah we can do that yeah I make a motion to call the finance committee meeting to order second which is actually why I asked the prior the ranking question hold I'm still going so I make a motion to approve the U finance committee meeting minutes of May 20th comment all in favor I thank you okay great now we can continue so yeah priority ranking the qu question was you know priorities timing of the you know anticipated start and end dates for the project capacities hours budgets that kind of stuff so we have sort of a good communication of what what's going on and where the work when the work is expected to start and then and then what are the the barriers to to successful completion like we have this you know study that has to be completed up there so it it may be a high rank but we can't do anything until there's anyway F I just wanted to mention um not only do we have to wait for the GZA study but the town did apply through MVP specifically for that area and we should be finding out about the award for that Late July early August and if we get that a lot of the funding was going to actually pay for the infrastructure that would be used up there so if that comes through that would be part of right so this is a project that's on the list but it's it's all dependent upon these other you know contingencies so I think we could right them yeah I think we could have maybe you and I work on creating a list of some of the projects I just want to make sure since he is dealing with the Skeleton Crew that a lot of his time is not focused on creating reports for us so it wouldn't it wouldn't be main yearly maintenance or anything like that just a special project no but the capacity itself is is such a critical component this and that's why we sort of found ourselves in this position this past year with the you know the the public safety building and the transfer station and the pickle ball courts and all of a sudden there's only one run right and there's and there was other issues here there yeah we granted to do with my time well it it did but but not not it's not what stopped the project I'm going tell you that right now it's not what stop yeah I don't I'm not I don't want to rehash all that I think my my point is about understanding the Department's capacity to take on this work and not scheduling all these special projects on top of the fact that you you're underst staffed by 60% yeah yes I understand what you're saying but when you when we take them extra projects on them are on off time I I don't feel that my job is supposed to be 80 hours a week if I want to make it 80 hours that should be on me but it shouldn't be a requirement because if it is we're going to change things drastically yeah um I'm sorry it's I've done things for this town to help this town and things got out of so you're saying special projects are outside of the normal operating hours of the highway department most definitely and that's the way it's always been when we did the highway garage 90% of that time was done on outside of normal cuz not having enough help in the first place puts us way behind in our normal du right right right right exactly so as far as extra projects they don't happen during normal hours yeah makes sense um and that's why it's always been overtime for any of the highway Department that works on them um we're also applying for a lot of Grants right for like the Shel Falls Falls Road issues um the the Culvert the block CT there yeah so I mean there's we we can update the finance committee on that so there's certain ones that are on hold pending but I assume there's a few that are not waiting on anything that could be you know possibly moved up the priority list because we're not waiting on anything we have to tie everything in with contractors that we use for yeah you know right the pavment and reclaiming and all that stuff and that's a lot of the timing issues yeah and I I think one of the original goals of this was was just more communication and transparency for public transparency for what's going on right and and that's really the important part of it is to make sure that we all understand what's on the list when is it scheduled to start what are what are the holdups you know um actually the Facebook page of the highway department does a great job oh do they that's a great updating what what work's going to be done oh it hasn't been done in a while the Facebook page Highway not the highway oh oh which page am I I don't know well it was during the flooding yeah it was updated updated very regularly but but Ron doesn't have that position right now oh got it got it got it I'm sorry not only that there's just so much stuff that's been I had to put that one aside okay I'll make that my task to okay it'll be helpful project to be done in the potential funding source and if we're going to Outsource some of the work to private Paving Contractors or whatever to see all that stuff I have to bid yeah through fer bug that's what we typically do right right so I have to have that plan back in March yeah of pretty much every year um but the list that I make doesn't necessarily mean the one I'm going to that ends up being follow because yeah yeah things happen right exactly but at least Baseline you still need a baseline yeah at least you have a list that that is your list of priorities and projects and you're planning to do so typically how the highway department does their budget is when we do projects typically the only thing I hire out for subcontractors is Reclamation of the black top or milling and Paving and line painting and stuff like that there they haven't done that two years now but um typically we do all the infrastructure work yeah cuz to then you when you do infrastructure work you have to have an engineer design it so people know what they're biding on right that's a huge expense yeah it's a request for any project you're probably looking at $40,000 minimum to have somebody draw up some plans where we just go and do it you know so it's a huge savings to the town all the way around it's but then you when you do things like that then you got to do all your bidding and all that stuff and a small project is going to cost you $2 $300,000 and there goes all my operating budget right so you don't you don't have money to do our normal maintenance stuff see this's we we do a lot of Maintenance unfortunately last year we didn't get to do a lot after July because we spent more time fixing roads but um there's a lot of Maintenance work cleaning CS um roadside mowing trees trees luckily they slowed down yeah since last year so um but we've still had few but um it's all that stuff it's timing is trying to set a schedule is next to Impossible cuz I come in in the morning before I get to work I get a phone call of something going on where we have to change all our plans to go do something else why does that happen why yeah cuz brain or um tree comes down I guess I guess my question is it does it happen every day does it happen once a week it happens when things happen I you know I guess the thing that I'm really struggling with is I understand that priorities need to change but I also personally believe that baselines are important and you have to have a baseline of activity some kind of plan for the year and if the plan changes the Baseline can be changed and the assumptions can be changed but to just say I only I can only deal with what I find that what I have to do every day is not a good is not a good basis for getting information yeah well that's what I heard it's not a good basis for getting information that the finance committee or the Capital Improvements committee needs to be able to make the decisions that we're going to have to make in a couple of months okay so I just told you a whole list of roads that we're planning on reping which is why I asked the question about a ranking they're all tied together well there must be one that's at the top of the list we're going to do them all at the same time it's the size of the project so they're all one project pretty much that's what it's how we do it so they're all short streets yeah yeah it's not like we're going to Miles Baptist those that stages you you would rip up the same streets are you saying stre we when we get in because we have to deal with normal maintenance of stuff when we do our projects we do that when we kind of have time get caught up with things that because time of the year changes what our maintenance mhm things are I mean like right now we're actually early but the roadside mowing now uh huge issue right right so not having a fully staffed that means that a lot of our projects get pushed off get pushed back and then we cram to get them so that we can right but typically what I try to do is the projects that I have hoped to do in the for the year for the fiscal year is the pavement and the when we hire the contractors I typically try to do that in their Springtime April May because they're less the contractor is less busy at the beginning of the year but weather does create issues you know because sometimes winter doesn't end as quick as we' like um so that gives us basically from now until next spring to get the things that we need to do in them projects like forward and all that stuff that needs to get taken care of before we can do a do the paving and Stu so so like you gave us a list of of 10 projects deoir and upper Baptist obviously waiting on because there's other factors that play there but like the other eight roads would you be able to say like the goal is I'm going to do this one you know in two weeks I'm going to do the next one in four weeks that's not that's not how you're it's all a group so so because I can't have the paving company come and do one row okay all right so it is step it is steps then it is steps for us that's I'm saying when they come in they're going to do a whole bunch yeah you're going to bring them in when you're ready to have them come in and do them and do them all yeah that makes sense because the same day so in the same day they can come and pave well in a short period of time so the roads are just that's disrupted I mean unfortunately we had to Mill upper Baptist cuz the pavement was just we there's no way we were going to be able to plow it because it was so torn up from you know being deteriorated so bad that's why that got Mill that didn't get Mill because of the storms we didn't just honestly the storms didn't have any issues up there and the roadway itself other than running thead so typically that's how we yeah so you know again without not beating a dead horse here just saying the goal is communication and transparency so that we all have a sense of you know what the work is going to be for the coming fiscal year and what a rough schedule of events are and what the dependencies are for I think yeah then funding sources fing cost and funding sources yeah yeah so one of my biggest problems was my budget is done in um February we don't know what the prices of anything is until May so it it's really hard to plan what you want to do but you still have a plan I mean that's the thing you still want to do something the question is whether you can or not you know your plan revolves around well there's my priorities and here are the top five things that I know I have to get done and here's like the next five things I would like to get done if I can so maybe if since you're the liais on um and there is a new town Conway Mass Facebook page so what you and I could do is we could talk about what the updates are and I could start posting them until you get somebody long as I don't have to touch Facebook no I I'll do the posting but that way we could you know at least push that out to the community oh good I have a question there any Paving condition index reports TR being Cloud all to the state for chapter I'm sorry peace reports Paving position index reports are there any that are being done one part we had an assist that position that we created that help with all for the paving reports for chapter Ro a Paving condition index report oh pavement maintenance yeah R I don't I don't have so we're not doing them because my goal on the paven is to we're close to being where we we can just do pavement Management on our roads great what I've been working on in a lot since I've been here is to get our roads to get to that level um there's very few roads that we've been able to just do a pavement U maintenance program on um we still have two very bad roads it or they won't be this year but hopefully next year the following year is um Shar sou Shar Road the other this end of sh Sher Road and um Rowan Brook Road um the way uh 116 in yeah I have a question are there any of these projects that can still be paid for through the state allocation of the flood damage you had mentioned about related what I was talking about with the um main Poland Road and Elmer Road that's that's funds coming from okay but we have and we won't know until we get more closer to being finished up but our gravel rades need a lot of work and we're going to spend a lot of money on materials for them roads and a grater I can't take that out of the emergency money can I no I don't think so that's a good question though they want to pay for it the rental the I was luy this year I was lucky this year that I was able to rent a greater good um but trying to find last year I couldn't find one at all um so that's not airable option and then like this year when I first rented it and then I had snowstorm after I got it so basically lost two weeks so I couldn't use it at all I have a question right now if not maybe arique not make me more appr directed to Mike mik cell down accountant that would be for the uh snow and ice budget for the uh Highway Maintenance operating budget you know we under budget salaries materials because of the uh Staffing and winter conditions and all that and uh we have an update through the end of May How likely is it that's going to be much different for the uh by the end of June snow and ice budget cuz we have about 77,4 tons um I'm going to try to get 200 more tons okay and about so right now I have $66,000 available in that budget not the payroll end of it the operating fire you got our 13,000 I think in payroll too available that U because of the overtime lack of overtime what's that the lack of overtime yeah that was just because it kind of was a mild winter um but so by the time I get done there's probably going to be about $16,000 in in the operating part of the um snow and I then the oh okay I'm just thinking because uh when we go into a certifier free cash we could take a free cash and turn it over too it's part of the funding source for these projects right is that what you have in mind you mean once it get certified in September October well then we'd have to meeting for the expenditure for a vote on free cash yeah but we could certainly do that if if you know that's what you guys want yeah I think it would be a good idea but that would that would delay things for a year right at this point uh potentially maybe not but you know we have the money I I well that's some of what I'm asking for here would uh transfer from my payroll budget right this is your primary payroll budget right yes trans 422 yes right and the reason I'm I've been down two guys for pretty much the whole year that's why there's that surface I'm I don't want that Surplus I mean I want the help we want the staff too yeah speaking of should we discuss the line transfer while you're here and we need um the finance committee to vote on this as well he already described what it's needed for bardwell's fery it's the reason bardwell's fer got picked was because that was one of the roads that was coming up that we were wanting to do an overlay on with and I'm sorry the timing was so late um I had health issues with my wife and kind of messed up everything this spring among other things and and I was trying to make things work and trying to get work done and stuff and it's been very difficult but so I I know I had that extra and I didn't I didn't realized that I was going to be able to get a Paving Company in here who has our bid for fiscal year 24 but I did I called him and he says we'll make it work for you so that's where this came from um gives me a step up of the money that's not being spend on payroll even though it's not for payroll it's still for the highway to accomplish things that we wasn't probably going to get done and it doesn't take Manpower much of our manpower to prep that road for what we want to do over day so the 85,000 is to pay the contract and do and the press the whole thing the prep work no we do the prep work they just going to come in pay that so it's part of your operating budget then how certain are we that the money will be there because you have to hire someone internally but not or you going to be the only one doing the the prep work our department is doing the prep work we already started I guess what I'm saying is that we haven't finished a fiscal year June 30th is our fiscal year end well see the $85,000 isn't that project is $150,000 for the pavement so I have money because of the storm damage my oh okay my materials budget didn't get used as much anywhere near what so I have money in my operating budget to cover plus the with the 85 I'll be do so you've got 113,000 of unus salary that's part of the we're going to fun it in other words so we' got 85 so we covered we have a little bit of leeway there well and then you've got the storm damage from money from the state from which we can draw right I can't for bar F Ro because damage but I can for the other two pavment projects oh okay so what's the to so who's the contractor and what's the what's the final estimate that the contractor submitted was I don't have the information in the future would be helpful for us if I had that okay so baros faery Road the paving contractor is Warner Brothers mhm and by the way this year they the bid price is $6.95 a ton and my contract that I'll have for fiscal year 25 which is with Northeast Paving is $103 a ton so it's going up six bucks seven bucks um six bucks which makes a big difference when you're talking all five fery Road we're going to just under 15 00 T um for half overlay um so that road with Tac because they have to put Tac down before they put the um block toop down because it's existing is $150,000 estimated they it varies tonage changes depending on you know what they do is um driveways and intersections and stuff well much and then w sometimes varies a little bit so tonage changes a little bit probably at 1 or 2% which can make up but then we also have escalation prices for asphalt and diesel fuel for the block toop um which I won't know that I'm going to hope that we don't have a big difference because the diesel fuel price doesn't come out until the middle of July for June so we' be pushing it close on the um because I can't encumber it CU I don't know what that number is see there's all kinds of variables and they're not I can't get a firm price I mean because of the so your estimat is of $150,000 yes okay 85 to do a line on right on and the other 65,000 approximately would come from your reg operating budget is that my normal operating budget okay and the payroll budget I didn't bring that um the 85,000 that leaves probably it's going to leave a couple thousand dolls by the time because I figured some overtime and pay increases and everything that's going to happen before the month of June yeah um so it should it'll leave somewhere between ,000 and $3,000 in the payroll MH I didn't want to I want to make sure I didn't over spent yeah well my common I would have is that know two three years ago was 40,000 last year was 50,000 different materials now we have Paving so I mean in the future it be really helpful I think for the finance community and certainly for me speaking for myself that if we would to have a ranking your projects it would help me understand in a timeline why how there's a the ration out for selecting these different things and uh you know it just came up like this for me I'm like well why this why was not this a separate warrant item on the town U annual town meeting uh is was a money article so U and it wasn't what on the bridge I guess for now but in the future I'm going to request that it please be done that way because but we can't do it for meeting because of the timing of I don't know where my B yeah but you said this was part of last year and it wasn't done what's that you said last year you had if you had last year this project would have been done right it's partal fur project was ideally would have been done last year right no I did not say that I said that um the chip seal that we did on chelon Falls Road I would wanted that done last year and the road kind of deteriorated more than I wanted it to by the time I got this done R FY has been on my list of things to get done but MH the priority to go and do a different one of my other roads would take too much of our time to prep it to be able to do it that's why Bell fairy got picked it needs to be done but it's it wasn't a high highest priority mhm um it's just it fits into the schedule right because we we only got two weeks left here yeah my my job is all about scheduling with other things and money not knowing how money is going to get spent um I it's it's a really interesting situation to be in for the money side I think because I understand Allan's point is that you know you know wouldn't we rather have this part of the you know the operating B the normal operating budget that we vote in a town meeting to have $85,000 allocated to well it would be 150 right to be allocated to to Paving for this project um that way there's transparency in the town gets to vote on it and this way it feels like well we allocate all this money for salaries and it wasn't spent and now we are the town's not deciding we as the finance committee select board are deciding to without town you know Town input to to allocate this now the reasons for all of this are very multifaceted so I I'm going to say we just don't want to see it be a habit that we over budget habitually to to to sneak in you know not sneak in I know I know you're not I know you're not you're trying to take advantage of a situation that we have for the for the benefit of the I'll take the help over yeah exactly so that's why I think that the goal here would be boy if you were fully staffed then we wouldn't even be having this conversation yeah I think that's Universal too right cuz if you look at how much free cash we had yeah exactly yeah I mean talk about over budgeting yeah right where's free cash com from yeah cuz we're all feel feeling like about free cash about 1735 was because of the over budgeting the rest was for other per other reasons that were not related to budg but it it sounds like though with the increased cost of materials like it wouldn't be hard for you to like over you know I mean just double your materials probably just ask for you know that extra money for you know the paving I mean if if if you have that idea which I know it's hard to get the pricing but but I mean I guess that's what I would suggest is just ask for more in your operational budget for you know materials and for and for slam on my budget when I come in well but you know but but to John's point then the town votes like no we actually don't want these roads paved you know and then they've said that and then and then you know well cple years ago we increased the uh of the operating budget the materials part we increased by about 75% because of the increased sharp increase in the price of gravel and sand well I mean that's a material you can index yeah you I mean there are any number of in there's any number of indexes information for all kinds of industrial materials that will tell you the rate of inflation for all that stuff it's easy to build it into a budget somebody just has to look at the index well to your argue your point my gravel went from $18 a yard to $33 a yard right in one year right and what's there's nobody that was saying that that was going to happen right but what was that supplier basing that assumption on we bid it well my question is if you if they if that was their bid that was their bid the the push back I would have made was what's behind that cost increase is is this is this a materials charge that you're adding additional profit and margin onto probably demand they all went down probably demand no it's not that's not how that's not how these things are priced and the only reason I say that is because I worked in supply chain for a couple of years and what suppliers do is take their cost base plus their margin plus their overhead and you know if you if you Benchmark your price assum your cost assumptions on index index you know materials prices that's that's your window into into whether how much how much how much is the add true but if you have a natural disaster which drives up huge demand which this whole area had a had flooding that caused a huge we don't have long-term Supply contracts with any of these places right we we bid bid it it's an annual have any options yeah so like Ron can't really I like I feel like you can't push back and be like I don't want to pay that much for push back part of we're part of a free market right we can't push back against ever Source our only supplier ofri a lot of consolidation of the sand and gravel pits tremendous worldwide issue and there's San shortage worldwide we can't say no we're not going to buy it from you cuz it's the only people remember Chris it's a commodity product we're not talking rare met yeah but we still have have that option when we did it it's either you accept a bid because of the procurement laws or you don't you don't buy any right I don't have the option to say I want a lower price well plus you have to buy within a certain Geographic radius of of your need right I mean you're kind of Li eBay account so does the procurement law say you have to go with lowest lowest price well I just got myself into an issue and I didn't we change they bid all the V all the companies give a price for their materials yeah and now because all materials are different even though they rink the same spec the sand content right that all that All Passes Mass do specs doesn't mean that they work for things that certain things work for summons but anyways everybody bid so I could buy from any any of the people that had bid and then they bid out there Trucking I did not realize until a little while ago that if you add the truck in you have to use low bit and that's a Massachusetts Pro that's what I'm being told by furog is I I'm pretty sure I wasn't told that in the beginning but that's what I got told just recently so I'm kind of bound by and I I don't know what to do because I don't want the material from L VI mhm right because it's not going to work for us we've already we use some of it during the storm and right washed away you remember discuss content right yeah I well I don't know if we were part of that but but we couldn't even back up the after we spread it on the road you couldn't back the truck up so it's not useful to us if you can't use the material and yet you are required to only if the truck me yeah so I've been working on other things to make things work for us but it's a it's I don't have that option of saying going to a vendor and saying you're too hot I do all the time I complain about it time it's like yeah any other discussion from the finance committee to make a vote on the line transfer any discussion no I'm good all right you want us to go first first I make a motion to approve the $85,000 line item the line transfer for the highway budget uh second the pavment of bardwells Ferry Road second all in favor I I I Carri unanimous for I'll make the same motion for the select board I'll second all in favor I I yes thank you thank thanks Ron thank you I don't I don't know why it has only three lines for the finance committee oh there was probably another sheet no right it below just yeah everybody just just sign it that's all Mike needs sure okay that brings us to uh oh I guess you you're done so I make a motion to adjourn the finance meeting the finance committee wanted to talk about priorities for year oh yeah did you guys want to stay for that discussion actually you should stay I'm sorry CU one of my priorities has to do with both the finance and the Personnel committee oh okay okay I withdraw the motion I I apologize getting ahead of myself did I don't know did did anybody do you have any other priorities for things that you definitely want to see like in the future or well one of them is what Ron and I have discussed I guess I could just bring it up now is um I I would like the um Personnel committee to look into um the option of increasing our uh um Insurance um premiums for or not for the insurance am the town pays for the amount the town pays for the employees insurance percentage from 7 7% right now yeah to8 at least 80 and I want to see how much the other towns actually do I would hon honestly rather have 100% okay which which Universal of towns because the Personnel committee did well here's the thing with towns is I I talked to the select board chair of Ashfield um when we were dealing with all the flooding and we started talking about a few things and shared resources is something that needs to be a key in small communities like ours right if they had somebody on the highway department who was capable of CDL driver and they weren't using them for a particular week and Ron wanted to use them and pay Ashfield to use them we can't do that because our insurance premiums aren't comparable oh wow right so there's because of that issue we're not allowed sharing resources between could you explain that a bit more I don't understand why we can't use that it is Jan explained this to me before but it has something to do with how they're paid and how much is dedu DED from pay and it has to words pay they get injured if they're working um that's workers comp it's not workers comp it's their actual actual payroll so the payroll deductions so we can match the payroll from town to town this makes no sense to me it doesn't make any sense to me either that makes no sense because you're actually employed by two separate entities right who's paying the payroll for the for the Conway employee that's working in in Ashville yeah because if we we would pay the town not the question for Jan she as the answer here for counsil I mean that that's say as Personnel committee chair I need more data yeah so that's what I'm saying I'm to find out why we're not all allowed to share resources and if it is because of the rate of the premium or what the town contributes to the health insurance I want to get the towns up to a standard rate and it should be higher than it is right now because we're having issues getting umlo people employees so instead of trying to compete with the market which we'll never ever going to be able to do we should bring back um the benefits more attractive employer a benefit would be 100% coverage correct yes well then would ashill have an issue if they only pay 80% we would bring the same argument to them so do you want to share resources I think I think if you looked at the difference of what it would cost for an employee hourly difference to go to 100% I don't think it's that big of a dollar amount like per hour but that benefit if that wasn't taken out of the person's pay um it would be a huge attraction definitely it' be a massive instead of raising the dollar the hourly rate like we went to 27 most a lot of towns are up to $30 an hour now that's true but I guess the one thing as chair of the personel Comm I have to say that you know it's going to be an increase in town insurance cost yeah I mean it could be substantial because we'd have to do it for all employes well that's what I want to see be could it be that substantial Insurance compan mechan away their services yeah mechanics of the transaction because if that person still stays in the payroll of the town because they're getting the benefits through there so the town would bill us for the service of that employee or vice versa and so we would not be doing a payroll running a payroll for that employee we'd actually be getting an invoice from the town and paying I don't know how that would work I just wanted to make sure it data I think I would need to and to your application to your point you're still paying the same for the policy it's just how you're contributing to the policy not making the employee pay portion of thec yeah that's a that's a kind of a different issue than what we're we're kind of confounded by which is like the lending out of employees to other towns no no not just lending out to share do we really need some of the positions that we have that probably aren't full full time so so then you could have them do part-time here and part time and then it makes it easier for the employee if they're Insurance the benefits were so then you're but then you're saying but then you know the other thing has to be thoroughly analyzed is if you have a part-time employee under 32 hours are they still getting 100% benefits and how you between towns that's what to look into right how many jobs could we have that we probably aren't getting because we can only guarantee 20 hours a week I mean we're already sharing the town counil benefits are a big attra that's more steady Town Council is is an independent contract Town we're not Tech sharing him anymore because he is now an employee of the town eony okay but it's that same sort of idea yeah I mean I think yeah why stop there you may as well consolidate lots of things and perhaps you want to merge the Two Towns okay I mean this I'm being a little I do think we need our own but I I agree with you in the sense that we need our own style of furog right it shouldn't just and and it should be our surrounding neighbors is that really what you're proposing in a certain sense but I'm not proposing to to have the towns congre or you converge no not at all some kind of Consortium no there should be some kind of yes there should be some kind of understanding that you know Town small towns are dying we all know this we can't keep up with the increase in the uh taxes right if you look at the charts it's continually going up and up people can't afford it we have more people that are on fixed incomes because the majority of the town are seniors that aren't working anymore it's not a sustainable type of way of of running things and we need to find out go outside the box say okay it's not the same as it's been in the past 100 years we need to find a new way of doing this well I'm not oppos I'm not opposed to that exercise my reaction again not having any specific data to make any discussion on is be careful what you wish for well this is the start I'm asking for the data so we can analyze and see if so maybe it would be good to have our town treasure to discuss maybe Mella just in terms of the mechanics how they how it work and then uh probably swing it by attorney you know Don MC Nichols in terms of the legality of it all well you can also figure out how much how many people are on our benefits and what that cost would be to raise the contribution of the we can figure that out that's the easy part challenging part is who who does what and how much and who gets priority and something you I mean in my department all our towns around are were in need of the help yeah that's right there's no access to share out I mean if we if we have enough help we're never going to have too much yeah plain and simple cross that bridge when you get to it yeah but the option who's going to share I mean it's like sharing a greater or um you're talking only about the highway department I'm talking as a whole so I thought of this with school committee because you know I one of the ways I thought about it was you have you know weightly and Conway grammar schools are very similar in size they're like 5 miles apart you know so at one point weightly didn't have a principal we were lending our principal down there to cover and I'm like why can't our principal's been a superintendent like our principal could run those two schools in a minute and I'm like in the principales your highest salary in the schools other than the superintendent with that split honestly think the superintendent would take out every school with the same salary break right no but but come on no but that's where it gets complicated first of all nobody wants to share the principal even though it's very doable you know you could actually save an entire principal salary and even if you have to bump that principal sum and have assistant principles you're still going to save money is that is that a position that's on an employment contract the principal the superintendent well the superintendent has five schools anyway yeah you know so that's you know that wouldn't be the superintendent the principles but you know I tried to get some traction with that but because nobody wants to share a principal you know it's like they want the principal at their school not at the other school um it sort of fell flat but that's actually you know something that that regionalization of school systems is something they're trying to push too right um but you know yeah and I'm not talking about regionalizing I'm just talking about being able to reach out to a neighbor and say Hey you know it'd be great to have um whatever it be you only did it once a long time ago was a police officer yeah work 20 hours here and 20 hours in weightly they split the cost of the health insurance yeah and however the benefits package were but we did that for a long time Cooperative right that's what and it could help resource issues as well especially Police Department right yeah and and it it doesn't only have to do with employees it could also do with equipment and I know that gets tricky but there's a way of figuring that out can't do it well just I mean there's there there's Logistics I mean I I wouldn't like it seems complicated but I don't think it's an inser Mount I mean I just I I agree I think it's something that it's worth a really deep dive into investigating if it if it's possible if it's legal and what that would actually look like if we yeah the all the implications of our our post employment benefit obligations all that has to be looked at the whole thing and I know in the service it seems like it could be like why can't we do this but then we get into the nitt exactly so heavily regulated I think this is worth a discussion with burog first because I mean they're trying to do this for certain things and obviously even with the accounting it it didn't necessarily pan out right I mean well that was it worked for us it worked for us knock on wood but you know for how long right exactly and you know it could be 3 five years from now we're going to we're going to be desperate to try to find and accountants are there's not a lot of them out there yeah we can't talk like it's been successful because we haven't officially started yet is Mike still on our payroll officially now or that still no that starts July 1st so it hasn't even happened see where it goes no but I mean my point was that even even fog didn't sustain their Mutual Accounting in program right right exactly they they they they wrote it said no no longer so that put us in a wandry luckily we had a fallback position but for now for now right and that's your point can you pass that down before I forget yeah you have to put an extra line on yeah I think it's there's there's a lot of challenges with with this not that it's impossible I think it's a good conversation to initiate because it's about identifying the resources but I think it's Roy's got a really good point why why do we just merge all the talents together I didn't say all the tal but also keep in mind along with the uh the answer the partial answer is get more young people in town so you whatever you do you can't destroy the things that why does somebody want to live in a town like Conway or Ashfield or because they're small towns with their quirkiness and they have their own grammar school and every so but that's my point you can't get young people here when they can't afford it well this thing is it's the chicken and egg and it's there are these outside factors that we have no control over really so I'm not saying we shouldn't try but yeah you know you said uh what did you say be careful what you wish for yeah because you just might get it it's the CC there are these un un unforeseen things that happen I'm not saying hang things stagnant and they never make that's not my point my point is but it's it's frustrating believe me we were looking at consolidating the buildings of of the schools and you know the push back you get from that is it's like a tital wave coming at you so we lost Zoom but we're still on FCAT so we're still good to go there anyway so there is a difference between implementing something and having the option right all I want is the option or see if it's an option it's interesting how your small idea yes yeah but one thought would be with all the potential there Synergy to the TOs would be would it increase our possibility of getting like regionalizing for Grant applications through state federal governments well that's the problem with the grants that we have right now is the way that they do the formulas and we've been talking about it with our state reps over and over and over again yeah as you know chapter 90 the way they do it is ridiculous chapter 79 yeah exactly so we have no ability to change that aside from continuing to communicate to them this needs to be changed you need to remove the top 1% or you need to remove the top 10% of the top 1% whatever it might be to help us out yeah the outliers right um I I don't see that changing at least anytime soon so maybe there's something that we can do outside of that that to you know well if you form like if you if you do like a regional application or something I mean that's where you know things change yeah I I don't know maybe that's the case but I don't think you know we'd have to be uh but incorporated as a region right no there are there are a lot of the state is trying to push Regional every every cooperation okay for instance like with the conom Ashfield was the lead on this and they got a whole bunch of towns together con way concom decided at the time that they weren't interested but they got together and the towns together are paying for um not an agent but a clerk for the conservation commissions because it's really diff there's so much work there's paperwork that needs to be done specifically notice of um and so we may be asking next year to join in that which we hadn't so far but it does it costs a lot of money and there's a lot to yeah to look at but that's definitely you know what would be nice though if we had had somebody whose sole job was Grant applications well this is where professional and how would we do that as just one town oh wait we could do that as you know where those people you know where those people work the children's museum museum of fine art well the F hug does the F hug is giving us help with grant writing because I got to tell you most of the grants that have come through my office I have gotten phenomenal help with the MVP and all of those things I'm getting a lot of help with um so we we do kind of already have that but it does come back down to our eqv you know but how we're assessed our wealth whether or not we're going to get is an assistant to the highway super a 40 hour a week job that's what I said I said see what I'm saying I think he needs and that's quite towns like for example meeting with the town finance committees and and the equivalent controller for the town of Long Meadow was there and just kind of laughed in our face because they employ somebody in a hway department who sold jobit to fulfill the complete the uh grants pavment condition index reports yeah which go to the state and that's why these larger towns get they do well to us getting a larger share of State grant money for things like Highway infrastructure and supporting andary ancillary infrastructure understand with the pavement management part of it is a lot of them towns are have different pavement than we do um the roads weren't con were constructed way better than ours was to yeah then car could do them pavement oh I've done a lot of looking into this pavement management stuff and it's any anybody that understands the construction of the roads can tell you which roads need fix and I mean my what what I'm trying to do in this town is get my pavement so it's something that I can manage M yeah um unfortunately wasn't in very good shape when I first took over and it's been hard getting it to somewhere where we can do maintenance on it and not a not rebuild it right yeah um question and you said we can join to the other towns next year and when is the formal day to join them and then we can start to talk about it well that's only for the Conservation Commission and it's through Ashfield so I haven't even really gotten there yet I just it was just speculation that we made consider example yeah so originally when they first put it out for this year um the Conway concom said no we we don't want to be a part of it and I I want to say our share was a phenomenal amount of money so um but I've been told that they may need it for the next year potentially so I'll I'll have to talk to their Town Administrator and see and abs and flows with how many notices of intent you have each year right because that's the heavy lift for the hcom it does yeah yeah and this past year has just been phenomenal for them because of the flooding I mean it's just been you know you know Highway Department put a lot of yeah I'm sure uh any any other priorities I'm sorry that that took up so much time why it's important you do because with you know with the way the state formulas are I mean this is something we'll be bumping up ad inin item I mean there's things that fall in our lap every now and then you know perversely or not you know like flooding we got money from the state we couldn't quite leverage it maybe the way we wanted but at least the damage wasn't as extent have to try something well yeah we legally we can't like Institute our own local tax like like legally like as a town yeah like a millionaire tax no we can have a hotel tax we can have a meals tax and and they're talking about what's the uh the ad of the for the real estate is that what they're talking about the transfer transfer tax was killed with the MBTA Community Law they're looking at trying to give us more local options but let's face it we're just taxing our people a different way paying no but I'm talking about taxing millionaires it's like the problem in Vermont is what right over 50% of the homes in Vermont are second home right so they're they've been trying for years second home tax capod doesn't Cod has a split rate Cape Cod has something like in the outer part of the cape 70% of the homes are not owned by people who's primary legal residents right so towns have a split rate yeah mon has a split rate between commercial we don't have commercialist but Vermont does it and cap towns do have a split rate now between primary and nonprimary residents well we have so few commercial properties I mean we we look at this every year and and the amount like if we did have a split tax rate for commercial properties not worth it drive them out yeah yeah but I don't I don't know about trying to do one on on second homes that'd be interesting to find out what do we have 22nd homes here I mean yeah probably big dollar homes yeah big dollar homes exactly exactly and the other thing with the Cape is that because of the uh tremendous growth in housing and because 70% of the people who live there aren't there year round they don't have people who can even for that matter interested in serving on Town committees let alone Volunteer Fire and Rescue and that's the rationale for imposing a split rate because they have to hire the people who can afford to live out there or even close near there because cave is beyond absurd yeah in terms of housing cost that's why they do it and that's why we're going to have to start to do that too yeah it's a great Point talking about the lbnb I was thinking in the world cup that is going to happen in 2026 with United States in Canada and Mexico I think those three together and I was thinking that many people travel here but also en your place like this because when I talk to my friends I live in Conway everybody said oh wow and and also when I travel there are a lot of Airbnb places and things in towns like this and I was thinking to also because my husband is already retired maybe we have some I think we have like a a small house we are not using but it's not part of the house maybe accommodate for every andb but my thought was what is the taxes here or what I have to do but I'm thinking you have to go through a and be in the town where they have to check off on everything and make sure that Bo of health of health support of Health yeah to your point I I have gone to the planning board asking them to look into adus so the current the current zonings the current zoning bylaws that we have right now they superficially address adus but not substantively no they they address adus as part of the unit not a detached unit Point as a detached unit that is my point again we have a problem here with the elderly and with retired people that are in these huge homes with stairs that they can't do anymore but they have family they want to bring in right so be able to build an Adu on that property the older couple can live in there and have younger family living in the house so Los Angeles is way ahead of most other cities and towns with this so they've modified their zoning laws where you know if you live in you know there I watched on YouTube some woman who lives who rents out her parents house on a quarter of an acre in a very desirable section of Los Angeles and she lives in a little Adu that's probably about 600 ft that's built onto that property yeah but of course you know it completely changes the setbacks and it it changes all of changes all of the zoning and the other thing that I think will need to be considered is I don't know how a Butters like on my house on Main Poland road if I turned my house into um an Airbnb or put an Adu on my property my neighbors might not be too happy about that you know they don't want strangers you could put a shed there they might not be Happ somebody not renting it every other I mean people rent their homes already right I mean it's already being done there are I think that some people take four air bmbs right now I think there's opportunity I think there's opportunity here to investigate I mean changing the planning the zoning bylaws to allow for this stuff with obviously oversight you know it it makes it makes perfect sense Public public comment and and there's something called naturally OCC naturally occurring retirement communities in many many towns in the United States are facing this and most young people can't afford to buy houses anywhere in this country really for that that for that matter and having attend a lot of regional and national conferences I've been talking to many small towns throughout the United States including places way up in northern Maine New Hampshire Oregon Washington State outside of the major Midwest cities because of remote commuting the uh and and tele telecommuting the prices of homes in these rural areas that otherwise economically depressed have gone way up and it's it's causing a tremendous imbalance between the housing of the price of Housing and the average median household income completely out of whack California's always been out of whack I mean I I work with towns in California where 13% of the population will the poerty line and the average price of a home is $700,000 towards like Tahoe in that area it's nuts so adus could be a possibility but my thought is that it gets down to a lot of these folks who are driving prices up because they're not their primary residences good idea factor in I mean over the Last 5 Years corporations like Zillow and red fin bought up 40% of the hous private equities C Ian that's what really drove the cost well I think the Boston Globe just had a a report on um real estate prices from 2018 to 2023 and I think like orange the the the average cost of a home increased like I don't know like 103% up by about 75% that's cuz it was very depressed at the beginning of this still is very impressed well it still is there's lots of room for growth there the average hous income of orange and in AOL neighboring a which is a part of our regional planning district is still among the 10 lowest in the entire common and places like Adams and North Adams the same but on top of that Chris you know this real well you can't build a house for for less than what $600,000 now very hard well it's about $350 per square fo that's what we paid we that's what we paid for our house 350 aare foot so 1,000 foot house for 350 minimum yeah that's crazy yeah but that's that's what so you can get the land but you can't build the house and then you can't afford the insurance yeah right right cu interest R crazy it all snowballs from there yeah it does sorry I I I to be very concise and and Personnel committee will look into increasing the town contribution yes yeah when we did our Highway review for the CDL position non CDL position we were T taken back by how many towns are paying 80% of the uh health insurance premiums we always thought that we were up there in the leading engine or not it would also be nice to see like not only the comparison between the towns but what the projected actual cost would be the increase in cost would be at 80 90 and 100 that's why I was just going to ask you whato contract is it's 70% the school but the union negotiate that's that's yeah it is yeah I mean there was a former select board member who always complained that it would then all of a sudden lead into the uh school committee and having to negotiate which your contract comes through next year yeah that would become a bargaining point for the union that if the town is doing this schools have to be in parody and all that kind of thing we'd have to look at the whole totally oh for sure you'd have to look into yeah the whole Gambit which I think we have to anyway we can't put our heads in the sand we that's the biggest Workforce too yeah yeah it is be a huge bar chip oh for sure yeah oh yeah um any other discussion on that topic I'm already depressed we're going to solve these things Al yeah do you want to call it I make a motion to adjourn the finance committee second favor all right all right thank you thank you all for joining us so much unless you want to hear the Town Administrator updates [Music] thanks thank [Music] you yes do all the time okay moving this meeting along Town Administrator updates I look good I don't have any questions about it and you post these online un unless you want to say anything but I read through it I did and I did talk to Tim while I was up there no I talked about a lot of this during the meeting all right moving along then uh select board me member comments or concerns got none right now me either all right nothing on the first day uh no mail no announcements next meeting is July 1st 6 PM as always um I'll make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I I unanimous thank you everybody thank you thank you