uh good evening everyone and welcome to the Conway joint select board personnel and finance committee and potentially capital improvement committee as well uh for Monday April 7th I'll call the meeting to order Since we have some
guests here we're going to move down to new business Um the second item on new business is the discussion and vote on holding a car cruise show on Main Street on the Saturday before
Festival of the Hills Festival of the Hills involved Uh so we have Mike Kirkalone is here Hello Mike How you doing and obviously we have our chief as well So Mike you want to kind of just give a little uh Yeah Um the classic car
scene has been pretty uh popular lately in a lot of the towns closer to Worcester They shut down like Main Street have a cruise night right on Main Street and um I wanted to propose this last year and I talked to Chief Bates last year but we just didn't
have time enough time to do it Um so we're trying to get a head start on it this year Um I think Conway's in a perfect location because you can divert traffic both ways around Main Street and um it'll be the first time out I think we'll get a good turnout
I've talked to the chief about uh uh you know how we lay out the cars and so on like that I talked to Barbara at the at the inn and she would love it because it's going to bring business into her Um I thought that because the food trucks and stuff will be here for the festival
I'd get in touch with them and have some food over here on the main street And then I've got a DJ that guy that works for me lined up to do that as well Um I think it could be a pretty good event for the town Um we'd uh charge entry fee to come in
only to pay for the for the um officers direct traffic we're going to need one on each end or maybe three Um so we're not necessarily do it to raise money per se Um maybe next year we can incorporate it into if it's a hit we could
incorporate into the festival of the hills and and raise it for scholarship Um but I think it's a great location for it Um so the entry fee would just be for the cars You were free just just for the cars We're not going to give out trophies or anything like that Maybe
next year we could um but really just to raise enough money to pay for uh Chief Bates's people to direct traffic Yeah because the idea is to close it down at Elm Street and Shelurn Falls Road So they would go Elm Street up to
Reed's Bridge back down Shelurn Falls Road Um there is a plan uh that I worked out with Mike that if there's a tractor trailer that's if you get a big tractor trailer they're not going to be able to make that swing easily especially if cars are coming the other way So we've
talked about leaving ample room to get a emergency vehicles through there if they need to or a tractor trailer So that's why we would have a a detail officer on either end so that they can make up that they'd be in radio communication and be able to get somebody by there Um the
idea is we're going to park cars at an angle on the police station side so north side and then if room allows and we have enough cars then we'd park them on the south side Uh kind of nose to tail hoping that there would be enough
room Where would the detour go for those needing on 116 excuse me If we shut off 116 between Elm and Shelurn where would the detail the detour go oh I thought I explained that one second I'm sorry I missed that They would go down Elm Street to Reed's
Bridge to Shall Okay got it Got it Sorry I thought I thought this was like a trick I'm like no I thought you were talking about I thought you were talking about the loop you would do No no the cars aren't doing the cars going down 16 right cars are going to be stationary There's no parade route There's no
nothing Got it Um there is a process that I have to go through to with Mass DOT in order to gain a permit to allow us to close that down Um I am in the middle of that process It's kind of more arduous than I thought it was going to be but I have started it And some of the
things that they're looking for are letters from the important people like from the select board myself the fire chief Um so I've been talking with Mike about maybe just coming up with like a type of letter I know for the parade it
appears because I got all that paperwork sent to me from last DOT is that there was one letter and they kind of changed Kenny and and the fire chief but it was the exact same thing My I like to personalize it a little bit So I change it up just a little But if there's
something you guys want to put pen to paper and come up with something good If not Mike and I can certainly come up with something that you know you guys proofread We can have send us a draft Yeah You know Yeah I know you guys are are very busy So I mean it's something that Mike and I have talked about maybe
reaching out to somebody from the Festival of the Hills committee to be like "Yeah I think this would be an important." I would definitely do that That my only I think it's a great idea I agree with you It's perfect location Conway is we already have a ton of people in our town that have cars that could be in this show Um I would
definitely put it in the currents Um just to notify people that'll be coming up My only concern is that how close it is to the Festival of Hills will impact anything with the Festival of Hills as far as like you know they're usually setting up ahead of time And I would it
would be cool like Mike said to maybe incorporate both you know Well yeah I feel like it it might actually be like a good advertisement opportunity for Festival Hill get a bunch of people in the week you know the week before but um I know the chair of the festival committee and yes certainly reach out
Well it would be it would be the literally the day before right because festivals on Saturday Oh it would be that Saturday Oh even better Yeah even better And our thought was if there are people that are coming in to set up they're going to be setting up primarily in the ball Yeah Okay Oh I thought it was the week before but actually I think that that Saturday has almost So the
only thing is I had not heard before about charging an entry fee Is is this is this being done it' be a donation No I understand that But is there an organization how are you
i mean I would assume that whatever your costs are for your maintenance detail you build this organization We can come up with something I mean we'll work out something The other towns do it They just they have a car club That's all it
is Right Okay So yeah if you have just just cuz it it I would say it's not officially a town thing right correct Right Great Good Okay So we don't have to so we don't have to worry about worry about that Yeah But I think the more that you can add to kind of like the allure of the weekend is Oh I think and
then we'll already have portaotties and stuff right just in case And I think it's I think we need to have a trial run of this So I think this would be a good year Last year when Mike came to me it was just it was way too close and I knew Master wouldn't be able to to push it So So I was starting a little bit earlier
this year I would love to see it I personally love Yeah I'm love car shows So good There's also talk of maybe Barb getting her whatever type of house band that she can get Maybe get them out on the porch and you know the DJ that Mike's got could be
down by the library and or just this side of the library at B Street and because it'll be closed off right there you know be that side music Yeah that music be food Yeah Should Mike coordinate with Hazel just for festival i mean you guys should
definitely check in with I think your meeting is on the 16th of April if I recall right So I was going to come to that twice on that one the festival hills committee Yeah I mean it doesn't h I don't want to be any burden on the festival of hills in any way shape or
form I think it's it can only add to the this is something that me and my pair of friends can come up with and make it happen I think next year if it's a hit and I and I really think it's going to be then let's incorporate it into the festival and then try to raise some money for that because we're not doing
it to raise any money like I said just to pay for the details Details Yeah And the hours we're looking to do this is 2 to 6 Mhm Um that way there it's not it's all during daylight Mhm And there's no evening flashlights all that garbage I
think this is a great idea I'm telling you And we could also I was just thinking of other things we could add on to the custo like a dog show Okay now you're cuz Chris has so much free time organized Emma
uh No I'm I'm to obviously both of us are totally in favor Well you know you want to draft a um a letter of support we'll sign it We'll call up Yeah we'll definitely I'll probably reach out to you maybe tomorrow or this week anyway So yeah
Thanks Mike Great idea All right sounds good Thank you very much Thank you All right since you're here we'll continue on uh the discussion and vote on request for traffic count study That's
this All right so this fur cog um so it's one of two counts The request detail is either a 24-hour roadway count which will measure volume class and speed or the intersection turning movement count
What exactly is the 45 asking us it was in that email Um I'm not really basically I think this is a free service The way I read it is it's a free service that they're offering to the town and um I think they're I think very just putting
it back in their plate to say "Hey is this something you'd be interested in us doing?" Sure If it's free right i mean I think that the count type we should do the the roadway count not any intersection count We don't really have problems with intersections The only intersection could
be question Yeah that's a pretty busy intersection coming down Academy Hill get me out But Baptist Baptist Yeah Yeah But it's never backed up either Um it's never been an issue Yeah But it would be nice to see
how many you know especially with 116 how many how much how many vehicles and the size of the vehicles that we actually have moving down on a daily basis So yeah and I I read this wrong initially and Barry corrected me I thought it was
a speed study that they would do throughout town which would be great because people are coming to me about putting speed limits on roads And right now to my knowledge there's two roads in this town that have speed limits that
are legitimate And that is Route 116 and Wy Road All the speed limits on Shelurn Falls Road as far as I'm concerned I have no idea if they're accurate Usually we get something from Mass DOT that certifies the road and the speed I haven't seen any publication of
that one whatsoever but when I took over I did find Wy Road at 116 I know we did have resident concerns about Emerson Hall Emerson Yeah cuz people kept shooting up there That's like a shortcut but it's I mean that's that's a road
concerns Yeah So it does say speed on here um like main Poland Road North Poland Road some I've gotten some complaints on Shelurn Falls Road is a perfect road that I'd like to see if we can get it legitimized Yeah If it's not Ronu said
that he had documentation or he saw documentation but he can't seem to locate it right now He's still looking Okay So this is basically a free traffic study that forgives their miles per hour then You know because it says on Shelurn 45
Oh does it really i'm pretty sure it's 45 Parts of Yeah parts of Shelurn do you say yeah 45 But is parts of Shelurn Halls Road actually 45 it's not posted that way anywhere Well I know I mean Emerson Hollow because it's not posted I believe Kenny indicated that according
to Mass D that's 35 like just based upon his knowledge of the that's what I remember was like I would say it's 40 seems so fast Well exactly The residents on the road they were like this is a dirt road that seems like Yeah When it drops to 35
is when it's thickly settled and I you can't call Emerson Hall Road thickly settled No No So you can call Main Street thickly settled Baptist Hill Road Upper Baptist Road Very few So I've had this argument
with many many people It's not like if it's not posted it goes to 40 That's great Exactly Yes 40 40 It's not posing So I I looked into a sign I talked to Barique about it Um you can pass this thing through the through the state
where the if the select board okays it is you can say it's 25 miles hour unless otherwise posted I'm like that would be great We get less signs post them every road coming in right but that doesn't apply to us Mhm So only for thickly settled So the majority of Conway is not
thickly settled and they're not right So yeah that was kind of I mean that was kind of take away was like we can we really can't they don't include wildlife We're thickly settled with wildlife and like Elm Street Elm Street's posted but I don't it's definitely not legit posted
Somebody decided that they wanted to say there's a speed limit on this road Does the town I mean do we actually like if we if if we as a town wanted to do that like is it is that within our jurisdiction to not so you guys can request it and then I don't know all the
hoops through this but it's got to be through mass DOT and mass DOT it back in the day you we used to have to put in like an unmarked person with a radar and just monitor it for like x amount of hours and then you give those speeds to
mass dot they do their little study and they get here it is So they take like the average and then take the road conditions Oh that's right And there's a risk that you actually end up with a higher speed Exactly Right Cuz you may want it 25 We had a guy in weight He wanted it
at 20 and they were like 45 They weren't going as fast as they thought when they put the speed sign or speed by So it sounds like this traffic study that Furkox is going to do for free would be bene like that's going to yield some beneficial data and I think we should do it every time they offer it So we get to
choose the road Mhm It says on here road name Yeah Okay Is there any particular road you'd like to choose problem is I can't I can't narrow it down Yeah There's so many Just one
Yeah Yeah But the other thing too is this doesn't do it only does one area Yeah So that's one thing we got to keep in mind is it's only going to measure speed in one area Yeah You know what just occurred to me if we did Shelurn Falls Road and we're trying to get grant
money for the embankments it would be helpful to have this data at least a number count Yeah That would be bad That's a good idea And that is like our one of our main arteries And if you put it by Emerson Hall Road Yeah It's pretty neat the way they do it No point doing
boardwalks Can't go anywhere Put it right at the bridge Yeah Yeah There's only one ATD that went by That's a That was a good idea of Marin I think that's a good Yeah plan Okay Cool I'll talk All right All right Um
and then wait it says a vote Well just that you're saying yes we're going to request the track So we didn't vote on the car show Oh Um oh yeah So I I move that we support the um I don't have a name for it Car cruise
show on Main Street on Saturday the Saturday before Festival of the Hills And we should do that first I Okay Okay Um and I also uh I move that we um sign this uh contract with Burk
for a free traffic study of I believe you're deciding on Shelurn Falls Road Let's do Shver Falls Road for the 24-hour count and I will second Can I make a clarific clarification instead of saying the Saturday before the Festival of the Hills which implies
the weekend i would say the Saturday of the Thank you Yes Yeah Well the writing on our agenda is sorry the Saturday the same weekend of the festival is actually Sunday to me It is technically the Saturday before because technically it's not Sunday but it does
get confusing Yes it is very and that's totally just Okay Shelurn Falls Road Phyllis do you want to open your committee and so we can get to the next one yeah So I'm going to move to open a meeting of the personnel committee Thank you Don Oh we have one more thing Sorry
We're open Yeah There's one more Oh gosh Sorry I'm leaking Um there's one more thing that while while we'reing um while Don's here I was hoping we could just review because I misunderstood when Don came to me about
the salary request increase for the police officers He gave us a a range but now we have a recommendation So let me just share my screen real quick I am still learning this process So we all I will no longer give you guys like options I'm
about to say well this is what I'm asking for So originally what had been in here was the 2444 because that was my misunderstanding I thought that's what was being asked for but this is actually what Chief Bates had given us here for
the range based on the other communities Now understand that this was last year and you can see Shelurn Can you zoom in i'm sorry Oh I I can try So all all the numbers that I did for the average those
are all Oops going to get sick Sorry All of those numbers with the average that falls under um either FY24 or FY25 numbers So they're not upto-date numbers The only one I got that's accurate is
Shelurn and he's putting in a request to go up to 28.85 Um whether that's going to be approved or not I believe it will be from what I'm understanding But 2340 was there That's Yes So they're going up
Um so so I just did the average of 24.88 The 2251 that's what we are paying our officers now Okay Under the PT officer rate Mhm Um 2444 came from Verinique
looking through Furcog and Furcog saying that we're paying our officers 2444 an hour That was misinformation that was given to Furcog and it has since been corrected So that was that's where that number came from I just wanted to throw it in there because that's the number
she gave me Um I was recommending anywhere from 25 26 or 27 And those were the what they added up to And I believe when I came I kind of put it on you guys to decide which I guess was silly of me And I
apologize So that being said I would aim for 26 All right Yeah the shell burner that's over 20% increase To 26 it's 15.5 the 2340 to 2885 That's 20%
2251 No he's talking about Shelurn Shell burn That's all I'm saying But um Okay So your recommendation is 25 or 26 26 I'm I'm just taking the middle of the road I always like the middle of the
road Um I mean yeah this is something we've had to do with almost every single and and I don't know the history of what part- timerrs have been paid prior to me getting here I can only speak on what
we've got and what I've been dealt Do you know how much this will increase the budget yes So what I did was $63 million I put it in here as 26 So this is this is what it would be before cola and this is with just as a placeholder a 3% cola
the lines but we wouldn't be doing yeah because we would do either one or the other right but if you see this is the same number so it didn't go up by cola because of that
what sorry am I the only one saying that okay so so the this one goes up by cola because there's no added raise right this one stays the same without cola because it's because it's a raise Okay
So 51376 is the same under 3% and under regular because that represents $26 an hour that rep Yeah See it's 26 um* 38* 52 Yeah Because we have 38 hours altogether I'm
looking for the math of what it would currently be with is 124589 Scroll back down So right now at 2251 it the total is 4447976
So about going up Sure You're quick at math than I am Yeah Uh and again this is just my recommendation It's closer to 9,000 actually Um this that's why I kind of gave you guys a range but when I was
talking with Baron today she's like "Yeah and I put it in for 244." I'm like "Woops I didn't ask for that." So we had a com So that's why we just wanted to come forward Yeah And again at the end of the day I will work with what you guys give me So I'm not
going to be pushy I'm not going to be like heartbroken I just Yeah I mean the the it doesn't increase the bottom line that much because there's the cola for Yeah Right Exactly I mean I I am with you on saying we should be
in the middle of the road Um cuz that's where we are in almost everything And I wish I could tell you what weight we was going up to I forgot to ask him today when I talked to him I'm not surprised Shelurn's going up that much just because of what they have
to cover Mhm Um personnel committee have any input The only thing that I ever get into a concern about these things is getting into an arms race Yeah Yeah for sure
Getting into a race arms race With other you know right and I could definitely see that But but we're in that position with just about any hourly wage in the town Truthfully
it's not just the police department Yeah I mean we definitely need to be above Ashefield because they haven't put in for their cola right so we know that's going to be increasing So I I I would take Don's recommendation
26 20 Stephanie do you have any do you have any comments all right Excuse me I agree with Chris I would take his recommendation Okay All right I think personnel's ready to
vote I make a motion to increase to recommend to select board recommend to select board to increase the hourly wage for the police department from the current rate of 2251 to $26
Second All in favor i I I I will copy the motion of the personnel committee Second Oh do we have to do vote on this all um it doesn't hurt me at all to know that you voted on it because then it's set in the
Okay I Well thank you so much for your service And thank you I do appreciate it Of course Glad we talked today Me too All right Any more questions for the police department while I'm here no you
could go I've got nothing more to add I know you had asked if anything's gone on [Laughter] Uh whenever you and Mike can get us that uh letter sign Yeah I'll probably talk to them on Wednesday I'm sorry Thursday
And like I said it'd be a good idea to get in the Conway currents too The deadline I need to get the permit first Oh yeah Okay Because if I can't get the permit it's not worth going any further Yeah But I've got the map submitted already and now I'm just was going to
write I started writing out one from me Yeah I got interrupted Yeah All right Thank you Thank you Have a great night Uh moving to the top of the agenda the minutes Vote to approve the minutes March 31st Should I look them over they look good as always Thank you
Adam I'll make a motion to approve those minutes Second All in favor i I guess I don't need to do that Sorry Um on to the warrants Uh also look these over Um Erica did as well Nothing out of the ordinary So I'll make a motion to approve accounts payable warrant in the
amount of $84,656.64 The pay warrant in the amount of $139,24759 and the payroll deduction warrant in the amount of $34,238.16 Second Thank you I didn't know if because Stephanie's here and your personnel committee's here
there was only one other thing unless you had something else for the personnel agenda If you wanted to do that so that could I think I you're to discuss the stipen Oh yeah there's the stipen and well the cola was the thing on the recommendation for the remember there
was the vote on the recommending a 3% cola Yeah board we can move on to the joint meeting with finance if you want to open your call the fin meeting open I make a motion to approve the March 31st meeting minutes as presented Second All
in favor i thank you Okay So while Stephanie was here um did you want to move on to the second item there review of the budget as a whole and recommend cola well um it was the joint meeting with personnel We did the police officer
salary increase right and they also had a vote on cola and I also let Phyllis know a little while ago that I've had another conversation with Mike about the stipen for the highway department So I can update you on that or you can So I
have a question regarding the role that the personnel committee has with respect to cola So it's it's already part of the budget right no No Why would if
it's what's what's the purpose of the personnel committee recommending a percentage well why wouldn't why wouldn't the select board and the finance committee just determine it if it's if it applies across the board to individual employees good question It seems to me that it's
not necessary Yeah personnel committee is really a policy policy advisory type of Yeah agree I mean it's it's a different matter when we were discussing a request for either an hourly increase or salary increase possibly plus cola
We've already agreed on that but it seems to me that it's not particularly necessary if if cola is going to apply in a in a particular year There's nothing really for us to recommend Yeah we'll just take that off the plate then
Yeah I think so Okay Okay Good I think this is our first year working with the personnel committee and I know the whole budget So we're working out the kinks but thank you for that Yeah good point And then you want to discuss the stipen um well I just so
what after speaking again with Mike today my misunderstanding was that a stipend could not be put into snow and ice for this work because snow and ice is already considered overtime So you can't put in a stipen in
overtime for that for that work for this position So but you could do it under the regular highway budget And actually let me share my screen again because I did put it in there just to show everybody what it would look like So basically you could pay a stipend but
not out of that particular budget Right Right And that was my misunderstanding is that when I heard no it was no for snow and ice but not no overall So as you can see what I did here is I added in this line for a stipend and $6,000 which was the request
So you can consider that The one thing I need to mention two things I need to mention You could have this recurring every year and then say in April the select board could say was it a particularly awful year or a normal year whatever and
decide whether or not to expend from that line So it would be kind of like just an in there in case and then I guess you kind of have to decide how do you what metrics do you use to decide if it was a bad year you know do you get a number of call outs or whatever i I I
don't I mean I that's not why I don't think that's why a stipen has been requested It wasn't the severity of storms It was the lack of personnel and having the super do so much of the labor
Um and you can look at it in different ways Uh you can yeah you can say you know there's going to be one side that's going to say whose responsibility is it to make sure that we have enough personnel for that labor the super Yes
Right Or you can say you know maybe there were some factors that the superb was not in control of at the time whether that was terminations that needed to happen people that left um without enough time to um replace them
or other factors like broken down equipment or something right well we don't know any of that with I don't know any of that with respect to this amount I don't even know how many hours this is I saw the formula as to how this was calculated but I didn't see you know what the total number of
hours were And to just go back to the point that I made at the last select board meeting this is not a this is a normal part of a responsibility under that role So personnel committee did actually vote on this on our meeting on
March 20th when we were first under the under the assumption that it was a stipen that was going to come out of snow and ice and it passed two to one I was I was the no vote Stephanie and Allan were the yes vote Mhm Well I just want to stay away from
severity of years of storm because you know as was stated from council it's it's like you have you have some years that are going to be heavier than others and then it should kind of even out Well so after last meeting I was given the
charge that you you didn't want it to be in the salary so you wanted me to find some other way to do it So this is just an option If the select board wished to do something you could put a line item in for a stipend Just so you're aware if you wanted to do something for FY25
you would have to have finance and select board vote a reserve fund transfer I guess why I was saying all of that is because I feel that I we know that this year in the past year a lot of work was labor intensive work or the labor work was done by a supervisor not
related to snow and ice at all Well no that was also related but just but but in general just because of like lack of staffing I mean that's kind of my concern is that like you know we know what the appropriate staffing level is If the supervisor goes above and
beyond his regular responsibilities because the department's not adequately staffed which I don't believe is the fault of the superintendent at all um then do we compensate the superintendent because he's filling in for the staff
that he doesn't have I guess And that has has nothing to do with what the weather's like or what the road conditions are like It's just he's he's basically legitimately understaffed Can I just make one comment that incentivizes the highway superintendent to not be fully staffed well agree Yeah agree So that's I think that's why that's Yeah that's why I was going to
say I don't want to see this as being something that it could be a line item that we could pull out at any any given year It should just be for this past year and not moving forward Mhm If that's the case then again I guess I would suggest that finance and board
decide on an amount and vote on it and then it would be out of reserve fund One time compensation one time for this year That's what you want Okay So the other comment that I want to make though is the the methodology used to arrive at the figure Yeah
So that happened on an ad hoc basis without any consultation from anybody else in the town with respect to whether that was an appropriate formula to use to determine this and we still don't know the number of hours Oh 100 it was 100 hours that was in okay so it was it
was 100 hours and it was an average of the based I'm getting this out of my memory now was an average that was based on the overtime hours of the hourly highway department employees Right so here it is the base pay you know his
base pay the OT rate and then the number of hours times 100 hours which was the average of what the crew was doing So why was it rounded up to 6,000 from 5,697 just to round it up I'm just reporting
what was requested Yeah Okay So I guess my other observation would be if you if you set this precedent and you agree that this is an appropriate thing to do I would recommend that there's a formula or some
objective criteria that is hopefully developed in with the input from the finance committee to standardize personnel to standardize this If you if you deem that it's an appropriate way to compensate someone for their time
I mean if you take 79,000 divided by 40 hours per week 52 weeks of the year that's basically uh I would come up with a figure $3,800 Well that's what that is It's you always divide by 280 280 right so that's that's time and half right
we're giving them time and a half on So that that's all I'm looking at is let's look at6 So whether it comes down to you we want to pay the supervisor more money because it doesn't mean every year it's going to be a wild This feels like an end round on the overtime discussion that we had
last year to me And I'm not comfortable with this at all Not not for an exempt employee Now you could put have a contract If you had an exempt employee in a contract you could absolutely work out this type of thing in contract terms and conditions
Yes It's begging for a contract then for the highway supervisor That's what I see to do in order to just make something more formal and structury Yeah it does seem like and the the beauty of a contract is it's enforceable for both parties and it removes a lot of ambiguity on on these issues because you
never know if you're going to be hit with this I mean we we voted multiple raises over the last year right i mean we gave a raise to the part-time staff to help with staffing last year at this time We gave you guys gave another raise just a
few months back to bump that up to what are we over 32 32 Okay Uh so that's up what eight bucks an hour 10 bucks an hour over the last uh year Yes For the staff Yes Yes For the staff Right Which
was supposed to incentivize hiring Yeah Retention And the reason we wanted to do that was so that Ron would hire to his needs and not spend all the time out in the field which he's done Yeah Okay Yeah Effectively but we're still understaffed
We're underst staffed because he doesn't have his clerk yet and he doesn't have the buildings and grounds maintenance technician But that is a different salary then It's not that doesn't go up to 32 because it's not a CDL But we're talking about snow clearance We're not talking I know I'm just saying that he is he for what he can afford in the
budget right now he is fully staffed with CDL drivers Next year's budget includes the fourth one that got taken out because he couldn't afford the pay raise under FY25's budget Okay Which is which is good Okay Yeah So he's he's he's got as many CEOs as he under his
budget Okay Yeah All right Well that's good news Yeah Yeah I and believe me I think the 32 an hour made a huge difference being able to hire I would argue based on Chris I would argue based on the conversation with we just had in these few minutes is that one of the
criteria is to make this applicable even if there's no contract highway superintendent contract which I personally would advocate then there has to be some baseline this there's a trigger So there's a trigger when this can be
considered like in that in that winter we were down too many two employees or or some there has to be there has to be a a trigger and a baseline and then there has to be which is usually called I think a dimminimus and then there also has to be you know a formula for the
payout to consider it and then then then it's an objective formula everybody knows what it is it's not determined on an ad hoc basis So are is everyone agreed that I will then take out the stipen line that I'd added
you want a formal vote no I just threw that in There was no vote to put it in I wanted to put it in to show There was no vote to do it I just wanted to be able to show you what the spreadsheet would look like with that in there But that's what I think I'm hearing is
that that stipen line comes out and and if you want to do it for this year and you could do that every year going forward that could be the solution is that you do something from a reserve fund transfer if it was a really Well but I I I mean I think to Phyllis's point I I I do think that it needs to be
more formulaic More formal Yeah it needs to I mean because I also don't think that you should I don't know I it's so messy because we're using super salary and finding an hourly
pay for that high salary and then exempt employee and also he's not working and he's not working and he's not working as a trooper He's working as an hourly person and I've always had that issue and by doing this we're setting a precedent exempt the definition of
exempt Yeah Yeah So not only that but every all 100 hours are for time and a half Every single 100 hour of hour of that 100 on a high salary This is documented on time sheets So that's that's the problem It's like how do we
know no Ron does not document his hours cuz he's Okay Well we're we're undocumented 100 100 hours That was No that was the average of the the staff Oh that Oh so that's how he came That's not his That's the staff hours that he was taking and just and so what they had
then he said it was a low average cuz I think a couple weekends ago he said they were out for 45 hours so 100 hours over a season is not that much you know um and then extrapolated it based on his OT I do have another suggestion if you
would consider it You could always make a decision with respect to the request for this year but then say one of one of the contingencies upon doing this is a contract because that's the only way to really address it in a way that doesn't
set an adverse precedent for the other exempt salaried employees in the town Mhm Or for a replacement when that eventually comes Yes Exactly And how many contracted employees do we have right now two Right Yeah Now I remember
last year we were looking at and Vernie correct me if I'm wrong There I think there are other highway superintendents who are under contract and there in other towns there are other highway superintendent that are on an hourly rate So the precedent is you know the the
landscape is kind of it's all over the map when it comes but we're we're mixing and matching and that's not a comfortable place to be Yeah I I mean I think Phyllis's suggestion is is a really good compromise actually is to is to agree for a onetime stipend to
compensate past work but then going forward to set a precedent that um that we're not going to do this on an ad hoc basis anymore that it's going to be yeah we're saying it's going to be we're going to have a to form a contract
between the town and the highway supervisor position superintendent that would be yeah that would be a discussion for you know going forward I guess oh goodness would that be something you'd want to have done in
a fiscal year I don't realistically I don't believe it would be pos it would be it would be a contract that would be effective in 20 July 1st next year I think it would have to be July 1st 27th yes exactly July 1st 27 oh because
we're we're in 26 this 26 budget and too much two minutes because they take a lot of work to negotiate Yeah you can't get that done in two months especially not Agreed Agreed Are there any legal
considerations we need to take into account i mean like I mean turning a a position that's not currently contracted into a Yeah those are all things I'd have to Yeah just research and chap town council cuz I know it is like you said all over the map the way people are I mean you know cuz I've told you plenty
of times but still you you do not write a contract for a person already in a position or somebody you want in the position you write it for the position for the position right so I just want to make sure I do think Phyllis's idea is a
good idea and that that's why I'm so cautious of this I'm I have no doubt that are super probably work beyond those hours that are listed there I have no doubt about that Right Well this is not paying him for the hours for the hours of his staff and he gets some type
of formulation based on all this which uh that's part of the negotiating I mean how do we how do we how do we figure out remuneration right So then my question for finance and select board is did you want to do the one year for
FY25 if so um how do you want to determine what the amount is and then did you want to set up a reserve fund transfer yeah the determination of the amount is going to be extremely difficult because
we probably don't have any information to get to that amount I'm sure there's no hours really logged or listed Not for him but definitely for the for the rest of the staff since he's out at the same time as the rest of the staff Yeah Okay
You could back into it that way Got it That'll work And if it's a reserve fund transfer is this something that has to be voted on at town meeting we can All right So we can just it can just be the yeah at one of your upcoming meetings So So we have agreed to 6,000 Are we still figuring out the number
i mean I think it's a matter of verified No we have we don't have a formula There was on the bottom of the sheet there Well if that's the formula we said but my my thought is we have 100 hours of overtime That's what was paid to the hourly workers not to Ron That's the hours of overtime That's that's my
question then would be based on staff hours what days there are and how many hours he worked and figure out that way so we can that's a formula right I think that's a lot more of a tangible metric well anytime the staff is out he's out yeah yeah but how many payroll hours is
that reser right so what I can do is I can go back and talk to Jan and Lori and find out how much OT was done and then come back to you just for this past season because you're only talking about this past have as a basis going forward for payroll What's the formula between what payroll hours are logged to the overtime
to the hourly workers and then how we figure out what some metric I guess we're going to look into a contract anyway right so this is that formula contract I mean we're paying a statement or we're saying a contract and a half there's two things ideally would be ideal which would be we'd have a
contract that's negotiated doing this and then we'd have a figure We have neither at this point right so we're still exploring It's not big bucks but you know it's still the president that we're looking at for the position Yeah Just just to be clear the amount that comes in from just
this past season may well be more than 100 hours Yeah Then you have to decide whether you're going OT rate because there is no OT rate That's what we'll decide when we get there I mean but like in this conversation we've said think about what we've said How many hours did
did he actually do oh he's exempt He doesn't vlog his hours Correct Yeah But then we have a proxy And then we have a proxy Exactly Yeah So it's one or the other right Anyway no So we're getting we're making headway on both So I was willing to say
that it sounds like more data will be forthcoming and I would recommend that there's another joint meeting between finance and personnel and select board like there is today so we can all discuss it at a select board meeting in part basis
of determining a contract going forward that we agree the town needs to have for the position of highway superintendent Yes So the information we're looking at would be right I would appreciate would be that we can have the total number of hours of overtime and the number of
estimated hours that formulates to the sup the highway superintendent actually being physically present to work There's got to be some way we can track that So that way you know we go to town meeting I mean we have it it's it's
concrete and that's that Then you have to figure out an hourly rate regular basis What I was thinking of because non-exempt and exempt and when you would have a uh non-exempt employee doing an
exempt position and vice versa there there's a stipulation in there about the rate So if a exempt employee does a non-exempt employees job I I thought I read that they should
be at that rate Yeah I would agree Yeah You mean at at the would be a lower rate correct the CDL driver rate Yeah Mhm I got to look that up again but I'm pretty sure I read that In the state statute Yes And that's the kind That's
interesting And that's the kind of thing you would put in a contract because there would be a citation to the applicable statute and then you would either have a formula to determine what that compensation would be for that fiscal year and then you might even have labor rate
categories for the other hourly positions that are managed by the highway supering in that would be in the contract So the only thing I'm noized I will need to excuse me check with town council only because again we're actually basically talking about paying
an exempt employee overtime That's it in a contract So that issue I definitely need to just kind of f metric how how we go about doing it Yeah what it's actually if it's possible I mean that's what we're calling it in our conversation I don't know but if it's if it's a if it's a
stipend based on OT So this is right It's it gets funky Well typically you'll have in whatever clause whatever terms and conditions are in that clause that will apply to this there will be lots of capitalized terms that will define what
all of these things mean right what I'm saying is if you're putting a formula into a contract that basically says these are the number of you know this is the formula for your working more basically overtime and getting compensated for it in a contract with an exempt employee You wouldn't
call it you wouldn't use those same you wouldn't use those same definitions as cap terms You don't have to do that in a contract I understand that I'm just saying legally if that's what's basically happening I just need to make sure that it it passes muster with with actually with the account with the
treasurer and town council you know Yeah This this just sounds like a complete mess I mean I can't it be done This is the this is your salary per week from
July 1st till November 15th And from November 15th to let's say April 15th this is your salary End of story Why why do you have to Doesn't solve the problem Roy What's that it doesn't solve the problem Why because it varies from
season to season Yeah I don't So So it's not not every winter is the same Yeah But I don't think you I think you're I I can't even imagine this contract to be honest I just can't imagine it What's that i can Oh I absolutely can You can
yeah an exempt employee I think I think the thing to put a put aside because this is still very early days is we're we're we're talking about this based on our understanding of the way the world is now with respect to this role in the town and the way that
role is defined in terms of the financial relationship and the compensation relationship between that employee and the town is changing as we're discussing this So whatever whatever is in your head now about the way you understand it the eventually the
way this will be played out in contract terms and conditions will address some of this somehow presuming you know Vane can get some guidance and advice from town council about how to approach this problem Well you can't put the card ahead of the horse Just I if to me it's
nickels and dimes if you want to account for every hour Yes Given there's some variability season to season but I almost think that it's well the other thing we're trying to do is we're we're trying to not be in a position every year of always have this surprise like
some different special request The only surprise would be that guys it's like January and I worked 300 hours There aren't 300 hours in a week but I've worked ex you know and I'm but that has to be understood in the contract That's
what that's what exactly I'm glad we're talking about a contract Well he's in the job description now But it's but it it's not I think I I mean for me it's also making this like we want to make working for the town an attractive position and I
think whatever arrangements in the past you know compensated for overtime I mean I think all our highway boss our highway bosses obvious all of them have have have put in way more hours than they're compensated for If you're an exempt employee you know like your salary is your salary and that's kind of like you know the expectation I'm an exempt
employee where I work and the expectation is Yeah I mean you put in you you put in the hours that the job requires and you know some weeks I work way more than like other weeks but you just do what has to get done but I don't have a contract I'm just a exempt employee you know So I think you know
you want to have this position where this is a good job and you're going to have a base salary that's attractive and some years it's going to be you're going to have to put in more hours and if you do we're going to compensate you for that And and I think to to Chris's point
the discussion should have nothing to do with current employees should all be about the position position to be attractive to So why isn't the position just an hourly position some towns do that Some towns do that
Yeah I don't know It it changed at some point in the past If Ron was if our super was paid hourly he'd be making a million dollars a year Well you have Well Okay So it's advantageous to the town Yes with this particular employee to
have it be with this particular position I think to have it's advantageous to the town to have a contract to outline the scope of work and to say that if you do go above and beyond and it's also advantageous to a highway superintendent Exactly Because all the ambiguity is
removed What does the contract say right We we perform to the contract Okay I will clear as mud I will research and come back with more information more questions and more information Thank you Uh thank you Phyllis for Did you want to
close the uh personel yes Um motion to adjourn Second Ajourned Thank you so much Personnel in the personnel committee Well it's a joint scratch everything So
we'll move on to the joint meeting with the finance committee who already called themselves to order So on the discussion is that the I'm sorry uh the top of the discussion or the budget updates will start with TA at
150 So all I'm doing here is letting you know about the changes that have been at least approved to put in the omnibus Um so I know that both the personnel
committee and the select board approved moving the assistant position to 30 hours a week Yes my contract was just renegotiated So I just wanted everybody to be aware that this is the new contract amount in here
Um so really it's really just a review If there's been changes I want to make sure everybody has made aware that they are changed So any questions on that one okay Um how about if I save it for last
because that's a little bit more of a discussion So property insurance I just wanted to Well it's not just property but so this line uh where am I this one right
here Um Chief Baker and Chief Bates and I met with Jonathan Finn who's a representative from VFIS and who the town had switched to a number of years ago to cover um fire police EMP and the numbers had been kind
of lagging behind So we got a an extra quote which bumped up the amount that would be paid out excuse me in the event that something happened So it went up a little bit from their quote to 12143 That was the only difference here And I
did go through um John I remember you in particular were wondering what was going on with why these budget numbers were split three ways And it it it got a little confused between Mike and I but these are the numbers that are that are
real Now this is how much it's for general liability workers comp We don't have any professional insurance I don't even know what that meant here Um so I just took the line out But anyway so that's the update with that one Let's
see We did police So transfer station I don't know that there was too much with the transfer station Sorry they're so busy here Um does this include their increase as well yeah Yeah
So it just includes the the increase for the transfer station And then um a couple of things I probably went over already with the compost going up a little bit And you know these were all pretty well set numbers So it's it's a little frustrating that it's going up
$10,000 even though we are reducing I just got the bulky waste bill for this month It's a $30 rental fee Awesome because we're not doing you know but the problem is I mean think of how bad this would be if we didn't have I know we need to project like how big an increase
this would have been it would have been yeah so what I guess I need to get with Jan and doing the tonnages to compare do the tonnage comparison because yeah as you're saying the price of everything goes up so right I mean that's why we huge reason why we even changed
everything is we knew the price we just have those numbers when we put together the warrant light Yeah Um would be really helpful I think Yeah Okay So that's those and then um Source Pass did update their uh quote which sorry no I just
remembering that meeting where the sales guy just wanted to do his pitch Oh yeah Um so so nothing really has changed but I remember finance pointed out that in
the the migration to well let me start with this So this number is still the same It's still 3314 per month So that's still the number that would be for the contracted services for managing um their MSP services That's how much
that would cost this line the software subscriptions went up a little bit because um you guys had caught earlier that in the migration you know that the one-time expense they were paying there were two things that seem to be recurring one was Cisco one was Microsoft the Microsoft is
recurring I took it out of their proposal and I put it in where I think it belongs which it always was which was here um under so everything that's here I don't know if you can see that too well but everything that's here the one six that is in our software and
subscriptions Okay So that will be an annual fee So the Microsoft is now in there The Cisco I learned is actually a onetime fee Oh it's a three-year um Well it's a onetime fee It's once paid once every three years Is
that So it might be once every three year but it's going to be different as he said in three years Did their updated quote take into account um Royy's question about those what did you call them those mailboxes that were like not Yes we did the I don't know the extra
Yes Um and so it we went through over the all the ones the kiosk ones you were you were mentioning Yes So what I did is I went back and I did all of the email addresses that we have for the town that we use for our EOTS grant and we're doing cyber security and I sent them
that whole spreadsheet and they had it sorted out by whether or not that that email address needed you know all the Microsoft or just the basic and then of course Microsoft just upped their prices on April 1st So but they they may update
again before the year moving target Yeah they do what they're doing Yeah Yeah So but those were included So yeah Thank you Roy for for pointing that out So so that was the update on that It you know it still looks pretty good for
you know Royy's done such a good job of keeping everything well under budget I know For Yes you did years Um all right Let's look at the budget as a whole Okay So a thousand
tabs This is my life Okay Article two I Are we looking at article two with the cola with 3% Do you want to just do article two or with the cola with the cola With the cola Okay All right So everything up here Um and
you all should have this everything up here you know we are all the budgets we've gone through I can change that because it's we've now done it Um so this is the bottom line here for the general fund increase which as
you can see is really big for Yeah Yeah See if I can make that a little bigger You don't have this here No not this working So without the collet it's 4.8 87 and width is 5.47 and that's how much
the difference is with the cola Negligible So you have a different version of the spreadsheet It looks like you got updates You have because you haven't updated us over last week and No we got a new one You just said it today but it's not the same No the numbers on I didn't get it Let me check my screen
It doesn't matter It's not It's not the most current version Oh you know you know what we made some changes I just made it with the police department Well we were That's the one you didn't Yeah I didn't put 26 in with the one I sent you That's why it's different That's the only That's the only difference What do
we have the historical percentage increases i see the numbers but do we have the percent i mean that's a calculation It's this year it's completely flipped because look at that The overall is 1.16 Normally let's see Last year the overall
was 2.96 Okay So the overall is lower but the Okay Yeah And it's flipped because normally it's the schools that's a higher percentage General is way lower Yeah Um this year it's like completely different So and again I wouldn't mind
if somebody wants to review this Just make sure that all my ducks Well you didn't change any formulas on on this page right oh I didn't change any formulas No Okay No So what happened is because they're all updated I reviewed it all two weeks ago Yeah Yeah Okay Yeah
Yeah No I didn't change any formulas for sure But um like I said the difference must be because I I just updated the police and changed that That's probably why it's because it doesn't look very different to me from what it was Yeah
4.87.16 Okay That's my double check to make sure Thank you Frontier for the board this year Yeah Right Yes But also I mean look it's been two years but look how much it was for Smith vote was 52 grand right there Yeah You know so if we
don't have to worry about that anymore anymore Well I mean until next year Yeah Well no Didn't he say that they have the new program now at at Franklin yeah But you know Oh yeah That's a Okay that's a good point Right So at Franklin if they can
only go to Smith Vogue if there's nothing offered at Franklin that okay so now that they have that there I think I I'm hoping that that's the case I think you're right Um anyway yeah So that's the overall but then you're just adding another what
21,000 for Franklin County if you if you had a student that would have gone right and they're right it's not a complete 52,000 you know savings you know right right well that was that amount was half
transportation half that's what drives me crazy I know I know it really does that damn formula all Right So are folks good with me leaving a 3% cola is that We didn't vote on a cola but
um I didn't think they'll vote tonight but I just want to make sure that you know you don't want me to go back in and throw some other last year Did we do three or two and a half higher No we did five We did five last year We did three the year before Right So I personally think we should stick
with three because the next few years might be really rough Yeah Well and the the other thing that I had said and I but I don't know how it's played out yet is if the if the cola that the school unions are getting be
the same as what town people are getting but I don't know what that is yet Well I don't think that that's that's an mindset that I think just we can move past because they have step ups and things that we don't offer Yeah I agree I know But that's why I'm saying it should be at least what the unions are
getting Again I don't want to even get involved with needing that That's their business I mean is it is it set i think our placeholder should be 3% Yeah that's agree Okay All right I agree Was it last year we did two and a half and then
two like two and a half we did two and a half and then two Last year was five It was five Cuz we could afford it Cuz we could afford it Remember yeah But I know but in previous years I remember we did a two and a half Yeah you reached an agreement last week Yeah we did five Yeah 3% for them We did Oh cuz remember
the difference between three and five I know That's right You know why cuz I did 2 three four five six and seven Yeah we did a whole scenario last year that was very unusual This is ridiculous We put you through hell That's when we were also trying to look
at you know uh the healthc care to do 70 80 That's right Yeah Yeah Yeah Can you scroll up Verick i just want to see what what the biggest Where's the biggest thing okay we go back down to 212%
Did I see that you scroll down Percentage change She's looking for the highest I'm just looking at the percentage change I'm just want to see what's You could filter the top line and then sort by the highest You know what I mean where's my concentration connection oh I'm going to
show you the percentage with with You're talking about K Oh you want this one no column K Column K Yeah I want Oh you want Yeah What's the highest percentage change where or what's the expense
sort smallest to largest expand the selection No no Can I show you yeah Yeah you landing boarding content Yes But to filter it they just want to know if I want to expand the selection which I do So that Oh you already did that Okay I'm sorry Go ahead
But I am going to show you tricks after this Okay Hold on New tricks Oh it's not going to let me do that Oh so I'll do it because all the the have to be the same size I'll show you Yeah Okay So we'll go
over go down do this Oh okay There you go Okay let's make it bigger So hit control and just move this up like that So I think there's stuff above this actually I thought I saw 400 and
something Yeah So what is that line why is that ma oh that's sustainability because they they've just being used this year There's no denominator in that calculation Oh so it is concom and it's it's concom and it's probably next
planning board because yeah those are the stipens Those are the do something else That's it Where in the world where's your freeze pane oh let me just do something
[Music] It's up there in view You just have to click view Oh it is You just went by it Yep It's under freeze paint here Soap you freeze pains There we go
Okay All right So employee cost that includes insurance right is that Oh yeah Yeah Yeah Okay 900 is our big line because that's all our benefits and everything Yeah And that's big increased That's healthcare I mean yeah that's
huge [Music] Yeah Healthcare basically things that were changing here that are really really big or things many for the most part that are kind of out of our Exactly Yeah It's I mean in
that respect like what is it 5.47 mhm Just like a negligible increase at the same time it's like sign It's Mhm It's significant Yeah And the other thing to keep in mind is that this is
then going forward This you know what I mean in other words nothing gets cheaper Exactly Yeah It's not going to Yeah I mean my thought is about the uncertainty of what state aid and this and that I mean well that look we cross the bridge when we get to it because uh going to be an interesting
cherry sheet year Yeah Well and also the uh department of revenue because back in the late ' 80s early 90s when there was a crash in the economy not a market crash an economic crash that uh the department of revenue came down with directives basically they directed us how things were to change So it takes a
lot of the burden off the finance committee the select board and other people in terms of how if how we are to make a methodology to change things Back in the early ' 80s early 90s the state came down and just said "You have to reduce your budget across the board
by 2 and a half%." And that was that And what you're saying and that went for the schools too Well that's it for finance committee unless you all have anything else No that's enough I think next week we thumb
wrestle over capital capital expenditure items or we want to push it out towards the was going to go that way too Um I just want to remind you today is I'm going to be gone for the day Those are the days we should vote on the capital
Um okay So we you want capital improvements on the schedule next week all preliminary discussion you want I mean if you go by your original budget agenda we by April 22nd we wrap up That seems kind of early right well that was when
the warrant closes Yeah So I need to have for you all the draft warrant which I' I've got but there's so many big things in there like the phone hug Yeah Charter change which takes up 80 pages So April we have But we have to close up because we have to have everything done 45 days before June uh 7th right has to
go out to the printers and this and that for town meeting I gave it 30 days So 30 days I gave you a couple of I think it was May 4th or May 5th whatever that Monday is Monday Okay So it's May 5th that it was like it has to go to the
printer then Okay Um we have to have a special meeting uh over outside of the uh Monday evening I mean maybe the week before we have to meet twice to get things wrapped up I know a beautiful Let me I I propose that select board meet I
don't I don't finance committee every week between now and then So you think we can actually wrap it up like May 5th would be the uh the date to have final the draft warrant to you tomorrow with all the articles we can tomorrow
next Monday between now and Monday 14th of April So what I may do is I mean I already have them drafted and I have highlighted the things that are I have questions about I'll just send you that rather than all the you know the bylaws and all that stuff which we can do later because I don't have the finalized stuff
Um and then you could discuss the capital The one thing I did want to point out and I actually sent a a query out to all the stand members Um that given the uncertainty of these times and tariffs that are being
opposed Yeah going forward We have to keep in mind whether or not we need to stick an extra 25% contingency on the amounts that we've already discussed because who knows i mean I've asked Ron just today if you know he could kind of get updated quotes
and maybe some thoughts from the vendors of where this is going They're not going to know either because nobody knows But don't forget we have to get all electric vehicles too So do So I said that Yeah Did they really yeah Wow Well for new ones Yeah
For new ones Yeah For new ones But I don't I don't even know that they're doing heavy equipment quite yet anyway But yes So so I just wanted us to keep in mind that you know what kind of percentage contingency you want to put on in case Well they they're talking about capital budgeting and planning too
on top of individual equipment requests from the highway department this year that we would consider Right Right Like the fire truck the ambulance I mean these are things that potentially be higher than what's we think Yeah I mean basically it's an unknown future right so it's it's just
how do you plan for an unknown Yeah future Yeah We can't So we'll take it one year at a time We do it the same way we do it every year where the future is unknown That's it Um you really knew uh the exact day of
the week that CO dea was on I'm really curious about that Was very worried Are we going to Are we going to talk about the greater tonight no Oh okay Well that's pretty I just The chair has just put down the foot No I So
just so you know Ron had a a thought which was to request whether or not um a we the town could purchase a used greater He was thinking just around
$200,000 or so and have it come out of the state disaster relief money that we still haven't finished expending So I did talk with our accountant and that would be something that would have to be approved by the select board and finance committee to put on a warrant and that
would be a town meeting article Oh yeah It would just be like a regular capital that would be the way simple majority vote We had all of that money pretty much allocated already though Um well the problem that has come up yes it's it was for it's for materials
but if you can't get a greater it's not going to do any good So so why why would so it has to get voted out of town meeting that was money that the state already gave us It's money the state already gave us but in doing this because it's such a large
capital outlay the mic was adamant that it needed big statute that Mike feels we want to foul if we were not It's just good good policy It's good policy Thank you That's really what it comes down because the town's going to have to be prepared to explain this to the town and explain that this is not the operating budget So
in our uh warrant light that this is not levy appropriate right this is confusing There's going to be another capital presentation just like is there a spend by date on this but this is outside the capital committee too You mean on the Well I don't know that it should be outside the capital committee It is a
capital expense regardless of where it's coming where the funds coming from The only thing I'll say on it is we might have two articles that would be in opposition of each other because we were talking about doing a stabilization or a fund for the greater you had put it
in greater I I what I said was that I don't want it to go for a particular piece of equipment We should just start sucking money away because there's other big ticket items Namely if you're looking at the capital budget expenditure item next year a truck for a quarter million Hopefully it's not Well the greater is 400 plus 450,000 Well I I
think you got we need more information We don't you know saying we can get a used one for 200,000 and you know what about all the other questions that come up there's only like cars right now used cars right now just got sucked dry because of all these what's going on in the world So who knows but I also will
say this that we have special stabiliz special stabilization funds for the Conway grammar school obviously at 60 something% of our budget the second largest budget item by category is the highway department Yeah And doesn't it make sense that the highway department
should have its own special capitalization stabilization fund i think it makes sense Yeah And I did speak with Mike about that today and he's you know absolutely if you want it to be highway vehicle stabilization fund do that I think highway equipment whatever purpose vehicle equip heavy
equipment whatever could be emergency repairs to a big piece of equipment from years back we had a our greater needed a $50,000 repair Thank goodness it turned out to be 35,000 but you know whatever But but back to the grater it seems that
that needs to go before you guys Yes Well we only found out about it today I know right and and then you can ask all your question necessary questions like are we trading the old greater we're talking about the process not the greater itself Yeah Well that'll
be on our discussion And this just came up because you know Ron thought well gosh it really you know that's another pot of money we might be able to make use of And it makes sense because it's taking money that you know so I agree There's there there's an argument that you should be able to consider that Well it's encouraging I'm not going to get my
hopes up too much just because uh he thinks versus we're actually seeing something which is uh that we can actually jump on between and it won't be taken like uh by next week Yeah sure Okay Um you want to adjourn yep I make a
motion to adjurnn second 21 And I just want to make bottom of new business is discussion and vote on just one an availability issue I nobody knows John and I are going to be out of town and not available the 21st
of April Monday and that is the that's the date I'm not going to be available That's Patriot Day We're going to be in Chicago 22nd we're meeting I'll be on my Allan's got all this stuff He says that's Patriots Day We're going to be in Chicago You want to do you want to do a You can zoom in
We're in Chicago We're in Chicago Yeah Okay We're in Chicago You going to do a meeting from Chicago yeah If I'm not uh out of dedication at the Guinness Brewery Oh my You can do anything On Monday on Monday the 28th we're flying back from Chicago So neither will the
You and I are both on the exact same That's a good time to discuss the capital I'll just take it off We're going to our daughter's bridal shower so I don't know what you're up to Honeymoon A delayed honeymoon Happy days Happy days to talk about
Yeah Yeah right Sorry hun I need to step away There could be a time zone Yeah right I got to talk about trucks Oh did it go out it doesn't matter We have this Okay I know but yeah nobody was on So uh I'm sorry Uh new business
bomb new business discussion vote on award of concrete pouring contract for public safety building vehicle days Okay What's this about that's this Oh so so we put out a request for quotes even though we knew it was going
to be under $50,000 Um we had to do the whole process and get prevailing wages and all this stuff that posted on combines Anyway long story short well I think this is an easy one Yeah the list you have in front of you is all the people who requested the information and then the ones who actually gave us quotes The
lowest quote was from Farm in our building They've been doing a great job um public buildings met um that same day and voted to recommend to the select board to select Maple Brook Well I will make a motion to vote to award the
contract for concrete pouring for public safety building vehicle bays to Maple Row Farm Second Thank you I just want to make sure there wasn't a place
here Um sign Yeah Attend any meetings i did actually Uh Thursday I had a meeting with GZA and um uh a representative of the residents um on Baptist Hill um about our drainage
project and we will have another meeting on Thursday with a larger group and with their engineer this Thursday this Thursday um but what I think at I I can't remember Buckyy's very busy Yeah I think at 2 o'clock 2 o'clock Yeah 2
o'clock and he will be there at 2:15 Yes Okay cool Well thank you for doing that No problem Um I don't believe I had any That can't be right No that can't be right I probably had nothing important
obviously Yeah Oh yeah Nothing Public comments No public comments We don't have public com No unfinished business Items not anticipated None TA updates Okay So the town clerk wanted me to um point out make a plea for um folks to
run for office because there are four there are positions that have no candidates whatsoever Board of assessors board of health and planning board So just to put that out there in case people want to run Um I mentioned all are very important All of those all of
those are very important Yes they're pretty critical Yep Positions Um the open space committee um is interested in making use of a small city's special revenue fund that we have So I just wanted to make the board aware
that there may be a warrant article coming up um about whether or not to use these funds Just so you're aware Mike and I have been researching and trying to figure out where these funds came from when we just can't We think it's probably something to do with
CDBG but it this is back from the 90s And so no matter what you know any use of these funds is going to have to be approved through town meeting to reallocate them unless you just decide you want to turn them back into free cash But it's a lot of money How much um
43419.58 is the current balance And like I said it's been on there for years Um anyway so so that may be coming up Um we did the public buildings the grand updates those went
in on Friday thank goodness for green communities and for MDP Um and that I think that's pretty much everything you want me to make sure I hate to ask this but can we get kind of a a breakdown of of everything that is in the purview of open space what we
could actually spend it on um well there is the open space plan and it would make a lot of sense There's a lot of work to be done in there so it would make sense for them to have a source of funding to be able to complete the open space I got you I got you Yeah
Yeah So I'm just waiting to to talk more with Janet about what you know how she wants it to be worded or whatever But just so the board is aware it can be used for any purpose you want to put forward as long as town meeting approves it Yep
Um so yeah but that hopefully that will be coming forward soon So that was and um so I didn't know if anybody else was going to be out I assume so that probably means the meeting on the 22nd Maybe I should push
that back one week and have it Yeah I'm going to be gone for when the board closes Yeah that entire week Yeah Yep Where are you guys going uh Castle Hot Springs Oh is that in Arizona in Arizona Yeah I mean that's why I build a little
flexibility into the budget You know I do things just because you know things happen and so we might have to push things back which is fine So I can I can just bump it back The the warrant closes on the 28th if you want Sure So do we have a poll hearing on the 14th yes 5:00
and the 14th And then So no meeting on the 21st No the 22nd 22 The poll hearing is the one for Poland right main Poland and North Poland Yep That is okay At 5 5:00 on the 14th
I'm glad you told me Okay Okay Thank you Verique Uh comments concerns excuse me None at the moment Did you see the trash I was talking about i didn't And I no I
I must have something wrong with me cuz I like I'm like oh there there there there was even Yeah No mail no announcements Next meeting April 14th We will have a poll hearing
at 5:00 p.m on that same day prior to our meeting Uh anybody anything else i'll make a motion to adjurnn Second