hey Becky hi George pretty exciting day huh is it did you hear about the verdicts no oh wait wait she wouldn't want to record the conversation okay is Melissa coming I have no idea I don't either I just just know April you got April's yes email sounds like she had a bad week yeah it does so she needs to get off the way that's good news yes Andre's going to Cape that's also good news yeah for two weeks good good for her to be able to get off and relax um the zoom meeting that's coming not the meeting the uh all boards meeting that's coming up on the 11th wants to decide if you know what do what do people on your board your committee feel about Zoom or you know um hybrid remote or in-person meetings I guess would that when would that start Becky when it would start start would it start in July with the new fiscal year the hybrid you know the the question of what the question is before the legislator the legislator T are working on a new bill um Grace has been tracking it we think you know so that it's in progress they're considering um making hybrid meetings mandatory um and that's one issue and so what the select board wants to have a conversation with everybody because Grace has been reporting that there's very very strong opinions on different committees and they are not consistent in one way they are all over the place um some people really want to go back to in person some are committed to zoom some are committed to the hybrid meetings even if they haven't ever gone to one or held one um our problem with hybrid me meetings is currently Can Only Hold one at a time downstairs all right um we have more limited space than we did preco because an um a meeting space was taken over for an office um so all we have is the downstairs and possibly the conference room available which are small spaces and then once if we can secure the spaces then we have to worry about the technology for the hybrid um and the technology in the main room cost $3,000 originally so if we and you know in the smaller room upstairs we'd have to you know equip it with something smaller but so there would be you know there's thought required into trying to um make hybrid available and okay so the reason I was wondering was I just wanted to see how an and well Melissa and April felt also but um George I just want to know how you folks I'm going to go to that meeting and you guys are welcome to come if you want but I just want to know how you felt as a board about about that I don't know if this should be I don't know if we should um put this as part of our put it on the agenda I didn't think about it but I just wanted to know personally how you guys felt I I I personally um first of all I really like online I think it's great um I like online for two reasons one I I like the convenience of it and also I travel a lot and so I'm able to participate and there have been some pretty critical meetings that I really want to be a part of and I was either in San Francisco or New Jersey where my kids are and I was very happy to be able to be involved in those meetings and I would not have been able to now in a hybrid meeting I would so you know i' I'd be okay with a Hy beating and the only other thing I'll say is um so that's my opinion I I like online and I'd be okay with hybrid of course but I wouldn't like necessar I don't for me I wouldn't choose to have to have all our meetings be in person um the downside to Virtual meetings for me is I I'm not always a fan of the way we communicate on the finance committee in particular everybody has to raise their hands and and I'm the kind of person who likes to just I got a thought and I want to get it out and I L it and I got to put my hand up and I gotta wait you know you know so I like and and there's body language I mean there's body language in Virtual meetings too but I just live I I like the live because the spot na I think is a little better but I would vote for keeping online meetings as an option and certainly I'd be supportive of hybrid if if that's what the majority the you know the community thought would be best you know I'm open I think I think hybrid is the fairest you know to to say one or the other might leave out a contention of people I will say that on this committee I think Zoom has been helpful for sharing documents like when we were doing that collaborative editing and looking it it's very helpful to do that online um I mean obviously if we were in person we could set up a computer and we could all be looking at it but um it does have that plus so a person like George who can just put it up there like thaty yeah well everybody knows how to do that sorry an I didn't mean to interrupt you no that's totally fine but I you know I'm uh I'm I'm happy I'm happy with anything I do think sometimes and Becky it's interesting what you said about hybrid that sounds like that could be a real issue for the town um it is awkward I think you know having done hybrid meetings if you have four people in person and somebody's on zoom and so I mean they're functional but it is um if we had if we were going one way or the other I think I'm with George and I would do online because I just I do think that Pros outweigh the cons okay and um I pretty much agree with you both uh and for me in person during the winter months you know if if the this sounds silly of course our Winters lately have been fine you know for driving um but I remember when I was on the selectboard and stuff we had and I and three of us on migu road are on the board I remember having to call somebody else to pick me up just because the weather was so bad and you know either uh anyway I just I I remote is my first choice and hybrid would be fine also except for the cost to the town of yeah of having to set that up okay I just wanted to get an idea maybe I should maybe we should have done uh started the meeting officially and done other stuff well that's okay that'll be the first agenda item I guess there's one other thing I do want to mention in it and that is um oh I think I lost it I think I lost I did I lost it um there was one other come back to George don't worry yeah happens to me time anyways that's one of the reasons why I like to be able to interrupt yeah your yeah um you know oh yeah I know what I was going to say you know when the select board's asking for our opinion on this I think they're probably going to get different responses from different boards in committees because they function differently and I think for the way we function this is perfectly fine and the point you made about um being able to share our documents right here on the screen it's actually easier than all the paperwork we have to print and bring to meetings right yes that's very true so in the minutes then I'm going to say that how what would you like me to say the Personnel Board favors online meetings and feels that it's appropriate yes I think so um it's an appropriate format is appropriate um and our concern for the town if a hybrid Hybrid Works sort of but concern concern for the town as far as Logistics and expense you know for hybrid um right so basically the three of us really feel remote is it works for our committee yeah and in fact I was hoping it work for Melissa tonight if that if that's what it takes to get her in our meetings like the last time she make the meeting so she was on the phone yeah yeah okay well thanks for so let's uh let's say we started the meeting and let's do the uh let's go over the minutes anybody have any change to the minutes that George provided I didn't either I just took well and I talked to George about it he had me on originally on his being in the meeting but I was absent yep I fixed that and in fact and I was in uh I was in the mountains of New Mexico where we couldn't get internet K it was sort of what it came and went you know we were very like 50 miles from the border I'm sorry Becky what which mountains were you in um the sandas no South South um darn I can't think of it because we were right at the edge and we traveled through several different ranges well the the first origin the one that Leo Al um Al Al uh it was named after him he the very first uh national forest was named after Aldo Leopold and he but it wasn't the it wasn't called the ELO Leopold Forest I'm sorry I can't remember or the place we were staying was just outside and we drove through there I'll find out is where you were yeah well I wish I could remember Mike is the travel guy he does all that stuff I do different stuff on the trips that's terrible I can't remember right now maybe I'll look it up while we're meeting okay moving on so any an did you have anything to say about the minutes any no look good to me I make a motion that we approve the minutes second ail 25th Okay arai Ross i r i okay so moving on what's happening with the for the administrative secretary I actually got a phone call today I'm so excited and I'm on pins and needles waiting for a resume to come in the email box um she said she has experiened and she lives close by good well that's a start it's yeah and so Chris o didn't work out huh who Chris o out did he ever contact yeah all right that's too bad yeah I might I still might but well if he didn't do it by now I mean it was it's been almost a month yeah Dylan said he was interested in you know somebody that I was had referred to Becky the a friend of a friend um kind of thing we were hopeful that we had somebody but he never reached out to Becky I you know you know I was asking people you know anybody who's looking for you know administrative job yeah I don't and tomorrow for three hours um Geneva is coming in to help with a little bit of paperwork I asked if she could come in on Friday and and this she told me this morning she could make it from 9 to [Music] noon well a little bit helps hopefully it'll help yeah okay moving on um the Police contract negotiations okay so I have uh forwarded so the last communication from the teamsters uh representative was that the union wanted an agreement from the select board saying that they would um put an artic article for a new um private detail fund on the next special town meeting or annual town meeting warrant whichever comes first um because that was one of the agreements in the negotiated agreements the select board agreed to that and has signed the paper and that's gone back to the union so I'm now waiting on the union to put the full Union contract together with the new language for the account for the private duty details um does that have does the special town meeting have to happen before June 30th no no that's why they wanted the agreement because it can't happen well it might happen sorry uh you know the library keeps creating interesting issues anyway there's a slight possibility we might have a special town meeting before June 30th but it's it depends on the bid opening of the library so this was an issue Becky just to be clear um this was an issue that they had in the last negotiation and it's be it's coming from and I think this is also educational for all of us this is coming from the fact that officers do not get paid for Road duty until we receive the funds from the organization that they did the duty for like the utility company and sometimes Tak a long long time exactly so you're familiar pay yes that's months right so how would we so they want a special fund where they want $25,000 put in a fund um and the reason that number is reasonable is people last summer were making up to $115,000 last summer and that's we had three different officers involved um so we're hopeful and that's an extraordinary amount we you know summer Duty details um sometimes don't even exist but this last year with the three-phase power going in along Leverett and Wendell Road and lock Pond Road there was endless work people could have worked themselves summer looking Becky there is a new smaller project that I've heard about but I don't know the extent of it so it should be smaller but there is a a new project that was starting is starting with the electric company so they what this I'm sorry so what this does is they weren't some of the officers weren't getting paid for this private duty it just dragged on and dragged on and this it was delayed they eventually got paid yeah they eventually got paid but they you know if they're doing the work in October they're getting the money in January or February yeah yeah by the way you know Tech technically I think is against the law because the state of Massachusetts you have to pay somebody for their work they performed within a pretty short period of time seven days or something like that really yeah no there's yeah the state of Massachusetts has some pretty clear rules about that I mean I know we get paid bi-weekly I forget exactly how it works but I know when I was working Private Business there was an issue we always had we had to make sure we paid our employees within a reasonable amount of time and do you want to or have you talked with uh maybe last month you talked with folks when I wasn't here in those mountains the range of which I can't remember I'm GNA go Mike's downstairs watching the news so I want I'm gonna find out um also have you talked to them about how we um changed the we went into the don't say anymore Peg okay I was trying to talk over no the the rest of the contract has not been released except for that one okay sorry forgot I said that okay no problem I had say anything okay yeah because we're almost home free where it'll become a it's not a public document until it goes to the select okay gotcha okay SE by the negotiators at this point and until the final comes in we have to stay I mean because it was an executive session yeah that makes sense sorry I didn't oh that's okay okay okay okay moving on uh status of the school Union negotiations I just sort of put that in there when passed it on to George thought he'd edit it out if he wanted to um what's going on because I missed that whole okay number one I can't give you any specifics about what is going on the only thing I can tell you is we've scheduled two more meeting dates and I believe we're meeting on Monday this coming Monday the third uh no not Monday the third we're meeting on Wednesday the 5th uhuh with the school Union and I think and possibly the 6 if we have to and I think another date I think the 20 something was all also but it's not on my calendar so there's two more meeting dates okay it is and there's concern about it going into the summer okay I'm sorry how many more meetings two more meeting dates were set and there's concern um about trying to we're trying to about getting it done before um the school go is in recess for summer break right which is June 18th I think I think their last the last day of school is the 18th so the teachers must go at least that Friday Jackie told me the 24th okay um any other uh shall we move on to the final update of the Personnel handbook what how's that going now Melissa has not um sent anything forward to me how are we going to get her I I I don't mean to knock on we have to just start I I just have to start fresh I think well why why don't we get what she's done so far and see what we can do with it I mean she started it she said she was pretty far along she thought she'd have it done November she must have something I'm sure she does yeah well at this point and I I have to say George there was a note in the agenda that said not a priority under the handbook and I deleted that it is a priority um because we have not you know our our employees are not getting any of our updated policies everything's being held back and that's a priority we have to get that out this summer um it just has to get done because it kept getting moved down for various reasons Distributing sexual discrimination sure from 196 or 80 it's ridiculous well Becky I just I just just to argue with you um the October the October minutes it says personal handbook policies reviews and updates draft expected to be presented to the board at the November meeting and I remember we that in the classification study both that needs to be done too and they I think April we have two more to do and I April really I tried to reach out to her this week and I mean last week and that was about week so um yeah I'm just say I'm just saying I remember in October they both said that they thought they could get it done from their project done for November which leads me to believe they must have something well I know meliss uh April and I worked like nine or ten different sessions we are at the we're down to the last couple of of classifications it's just once the budget hit and she started working again I haven't seen her again and you're not going to see her for two more weeks three weeks right so um good time to work on the handbook right yeah ask Melissa Becky you might have more there than I T I asked her that at a recent select board meeting and um so are the changes to the hbook from the current hbook substantial I think she was you know how Ela likes to make things very beautiful I think she was doing a lot of reformatting um as well so she's really good at that yeah I can I can see that and it's you know it's been a very she's it's been very hectic for her you know she's taken on a lot of new projects at work and the select board has not been quiet um so she's been out straight and if we can find a way to take that pressure off or I think it would be good okay so you so you're G to take that on Becky yeah are you talking about the uh I'm gonna Peg you know I'm happy to help to the extent that I can which I'm pretty busy in June but okay we'll get it done I think I think this is one where you know she's very over worked already we can find a way to start how many sorry I'm sorry Becky go ahead I didn't mean to interrupt you I just wanted to ask how many hours do you think are left I have no idea okay because I um I now have the one thing that can help and I didn't have before um was I didn't have a software that could change PDF into Word documents um and now I do so that's otherwise I couldn't tackle this job um and that's where Melissa really is great at the PDFs and yes working with them so but I think we can get a start and then maybe she can jump in here and there with changes that others might not be able to make or that she wants that aren't done um but give give her a running started yeah and you know if she gives you something electronically and you're having trouble with it I might be able to take a crack at it too okay you know like I said I'm willing to help I I I understand the urgency and we've been talking about this for a while so would it be helpful to have we have to be able to would it be helpful to say we have to have this done by August 31st it needs to be done no that doesn't that doesn't work didn't work when we did November no that's right true true yeah I do remember we put it off to November because other stuff was happening well stuff keeps happening I guess you know and it getset move down yeah yeah okay so so Becky you're gonna sort of try to gently nudge her and see how things go and George might be might be able to participate somehow certain if if I can to the extent I can and don't forget the part where you and Ann are going to help to great however we I'm happy to so I think Becky you're gonna try to just get Melissa to hand it over to us right well I'm not gonna I'm not gonna depend you know I'm G to look at turning it into a PDF and what I have in my notes that needs to get done I'm just and start there and um see if we you know if she has more than that done great if not we'll just take it from there okay that sounds great thank you yes okay um I'm looking at Future business oh can somebody talk to me about reviewing I sort of missed out on this I think when I was gone in that Forest Review hiring practices for police and fire department employees that's in the future we have that down for future business I missed the discussion on that I think or not yeah that came up in the last meeting yeah what about the hiring practices how we need to review the practices for police and fire department employees Becky wasn't go ahead George no I was going to say wasn't that something you brought up yeah and I'm thinking I'm not sure part of the issue so I think the the part of the issue is we have two strong Chiefs and then you have the select board is the appointing authority so I think everything is working pretty well um we our strong Chiefs are very caring about the select board and the community so they're happy with this process that we've kind of set up where um when they have a candidate we have a small uh group of residents and and the chief and myself meet with the officer and do an interview just to get a sense of the person because for both especially for police um there's a very different kind of having making sure that the sensibilities fit into a small community is is pretty important and it just gives the Chiefs feedback on their officers that I think I think is important because over time the the biggest Personnel issues have been um hiring somebody that's not a fit for our town so it matters um and I think that's going pretty well the other thing is um these two departments unlike other departments do Corey checks and we have um so it's the police do the Corey checks and they've traditionally done them for the fire department as well um Maryanne also does Corey checks but they're a very different kind of Corey checks it's just um she can call in just like the school does and it's a you know it does it's a different range of Cory it's not as in depth yeah because of the level of the responsibility and part of my questioning and I guess the reason I brought it up is my question is more about where the authority of a strong Chief or a strong yeah strong Chiefs and the select board I don't know you know that's what I was thinking about but I don't know from reading the statute I haven't really figured out if there's any conflict in Authority the way we do it well can you explain the term strong Chief okay strong Chiefs means that the only role the select board has is to make an appointment and I'm not 100% clear if they can refuse to make an appointment recommended by a strong Chief it's I haven't experienced it I've never because everybody's work together well um but I don't know what the you know what the law is on that and I guess that's a question for labor Council but maybe not I just want to make sure that we're appropriately everybody's Authority is is being appropriately exercised and nobody's stepping on somebody else so should we keep this on as a topic for discussion or do we we just s waiting until we hear more from you on that I guess I'll try to find out from you know when when there's an opportunity with legal council to see if I can get an answer from them okay so we'll sort of wait you know not put it on the agenda until we hear more from you about that okay sounds good uh moving on how are we doing here doing great 706 yeah you know April's not here to talk about the classification schedule how about the status and result of the select board employee contract negotiations that was is that far in the future at this point or no actually we have that down for future business there was two right Becky there was Tom administrator and what was the other one the union so do you have a contract does the Town Administrator now have new contract yeah it's still happening wow okay can you tell us when it might happen no okay fine okay that that answers that question who knows keep us posted please let us know yes yes in the future keep us posted for the future okay and that's okay now I'm gonna go real quick and find out for Mike the name of the forest P Were You by Las cruus where were you no we were north of Silver City oh you were were in theila uh oh Becky's favor y yeah you were in the hila that's my when I first went yes yes yes yes that's it I don't have to go ask Mike no the hila is um in Southwestern New Mexico and it does go all the way to the Arizona border and Silver City is like on the edge where you start into the Forest right and we were just north we stayed at this lovely uh it was wonderful we found Mike had found online he does all the trips we stayed in this lovely group of Casitas the hila yeah there you go hila national forest and they were lovely we were we were isolated it was uh the birding was great Mike's a rockhound the rockhound was great we had it was a 270 acre spread and only five Casitas total wow wow and so you went right from the view of our uh they call them they don't call it a porch a portal it's not a patio it's a portal and right down below us was this lovely full um always a full running stream that was it was a small it was a stream not a river green green green and if you came up the hill to where we were um it was you know typical Southwest Red Dirt red you can see the rivers are because they're lined by trees yes cottonwood trees it was gorgeous and in the fall they're so beautiful yeah yeah and you sort of we could anyway so we had access to this River because we love birding and Mike Mike was looking up at birds and looking down at rocks looking up at Birds rocks and the guy who owns the place the guy and his wife he was a geologist he a trained geologist and he's a rock hound also wow so they had a lot of fun talking about rocks how exciting it was great it was just great it was a beautiful place I would highly recommend it if you need to just get away and be in a quiet oh and the other thing is the night sky oh my God West Stars you can't see constellations there's too many stars yeah right and little telescope there's a little telescope in each little cin oh that's great it was wonderful it was I remember being in the Tetons and they were diamonds there were just diamonds I was blown away yeah it was great we're hoping to go back next year we'll see you nice yeah that's our plan but now remembered hila I won't have to go I had friends who went to the hila they were there um they like the mountain bike they like to hike and um they said we just drove down a dirt road we just pulled to the side and we set up camp yeah reservations didn't need to tell anybody there was no traffic just anywhere we wanted good hiking too yeah yeah we didn't do a whole lot of hiking but we might do more when we go back so good for you that sounds great that owned um thousand acre ranch right on the border of Mexico um just outside well I guess he was about 50 miles from Silver City in this little town named Glenwood and he so he had this beautiful house it looked like a little I mean it was Modern but it was built around a courtyard and um it was a ranch and he asked me to do some I went out to caretake for it for a month um when he was you know like when I was in my 20s and when I was out that you know I had a saw off shotgun I rattle saw off shotgun yeah it was that that's what my I my job was to kill the squirrels to keep them from eating the tree oh that's what it was for I was going to say was it the wild west squirrels here I yes I was right on the catwalk that goes up into the mountains that um it's this ancient Trail and and it it's but they had built this catwalk so it was a touristy area sort of but for people that really were out on the edge of things and it was you know there were a lot of rattlesnakes and scorpions I I shot three rattlesnakes um one was in un you know I had to wait for it to get out of the garage because I didn't want to destroy the you want an adventurous time being was so Beau and City and then it turned out later that summer I met my husband and you know we ended up getting married and his family was from that from the hila his grandfather was a silver Miner in the W and they lived near Truth or Consequences but he went to the East mountains and hid all the silver he found so we used to you know think we would go back and try to find all the silver but we didn't get there you then you could retire yeah except the silver prices were way down then so okay if it was gold we would have been there yeah yeah love the West love the westling but yeah that's a beautiful beautiful amazing area you guys were there sorry I couldn't remember that I just a block it happens as you older folks believe me oh I believe you I already know yeah anyway so do we have any other well the only thing I wanted the only thing I wanted to raise was um so we've got June 20th is our next meeting and July 18th in the subsequent month I'm not going to be able to make June 20 and I'm probably not GNA be able to make June 27 either and I'm not going to be able to make July 4th so you know I don't know if it matters that I'm here or not but I just want to so should we go maybe what do you folks think about June 133 we gonna have any will we need to yeah any maybe oh I actually can't I can't do the 13th but how about we skip June yes I was just to make sure we have something to work with on the classification and manual for the July meeting okay that'll be our reward for working hard is not to have a meeting I like that and hopefully we can accomplish something for real yeah yeah yes that's April that her July meeting is in my office I mean her June meeting is in my office to finish up there you go I like that so how about scheduling an August meeting no July not July 11th is that George did you say you're out of town uh um no I can make July 18th July 18 is the thir let me find July July 18 is the 3D um Thursday I can make that but I was just saying we should schedule Beyond July that's what oh oh oh oh I'm not sure we don't have to but I just was yeah maybe you know what since it's summer and there's so much going on why don't we just do July and see at that point what we can do for August I'm one one person that I'm not sure about August yet I mean everybody's got stuff happening okay that's fine want do that is that okay and and Becky that's okay yep that work for me okay so let's go with July 18 and we'll go from there that sounds good all right and I'm so we're gonna I'm gonna cross out Personnel Board for the 20th of June and I'm going to email Melissa and tell her what we're doing and so she has the July 18th date okay to meet in June and let us know you know when you do when you do let would you let us know or let me know and I'll get in touch with people if it if it doesn't work for her if July 18th doesn't work for Melissa okay yeah let's try and get a commitment from her right it's it's been hard I know her job is demanding um let's just assume that's all assumed all three of us and Becky that we'll go for July 18 and assume that Melissa hopefully can hopefully can I think it'll help if I let her know the date now yeah okay sounds good Becky um on that no you know I know on the finance committee uh first meeting of July we always assigned uh different members to different committees that's right is the select board going to be doing that in the beginning of July they do I put it on the agenda at the beginning yeah I mean is it possible that it's just this is not a convenient meeting for her and there are other meetings she might be able to do and somebody else good I'm not saying that I want Melissa not to be in this committee I like working with Melissa and she she definitely does a great job on that um and until she can feedback yeah yeah I know I don't want to put pressure on her either you know um but so we can just wait on that and see because the select board will have a conversation about it okay okay and George can you continue to be on the Personnel Board is there any conflict with that no not for me once a month is fine okay it's it's not it's not taxing okay all right sounds good and Ann are you dog walking tomorrow uh don't worry I'll text you if I do okay all right so I make I have one more thing to tell you guys I told the finance Comm me so George already knows but for the June 11th um if I can get the announcement out we're having a committee Bake Off contest which basically means if one person on the committee makes something um that would be excellent and then we'll have a contest we'll vote who made the best something from which okay this is this is a way for the select board try not to have to spend any money but I think it would be fun you sometimes we've gotten donuts for the all boards meeting but if we have bakets I think it would be it would be nice and a little competition is always good what do you think I'll I'll make something I'll and if George and Ann if you want to come to that meeting on June 11th feel free well I'll be there for finance committee and I might bring something baked for the finance committee not that I'm baking it let's be clear it won't be me baking it but my wife doesn't she likes to bake so I'm sure she'd be happy to do it oh that'd be wonderful ex excellent and I've got to get that this message out to the rest of the Committees it's so much easier to do it in person though okay well I'll bring something and I oh good bring my appetite wonderful I'll see you does that mean we have to how many boards are there does that mean we have to taste a little bit from every board it'll be a lot it'll be a lot or we'll see see what actually happened yeah some people might want to might want plead that they thought it was a zoom meeting so and three-dimensional biscuits or something again digital biscuits oh oh okay I'm gonna move that we adjourn the meeting all right those all in favor AR out side oh you're fine no we on the rec committee everyone just raised their hand so I was like on the okay and the reason you can't tell them to that it's important to say your names because the issue is if somebody's on the phone they don't know you raised your hands okay that's why you go through a roll call vote okay I will share that Becky thank you very much okay see you all on June 11th okay sounds good by bye bye good night