everybody to the town of Conway joint select board finance committee meeting for Monday Cinco de Mayo call the meeting to order uh we'll jump down to new business at the very bottom discussion and vote on appointment of
the grant manager for two life path grants Mr. Caner is joining us here today. Um, sorry, I have to mute this phone. Mr. Caner is the only applicant for the
job that we have posted. I'm the best applicant. The wait. Okay. Best. Um, so the I'm sorry, the term the term for both not the term the name for both
life pan path grants. One's senior home services and one's senior driving services. Senior home and senior driving services. Um I will make a motion to elect uh Phil Cananter to be the manager
for both life path grants uh for senior services on transportation and housing. Uh second. Thank you, Mr. Per. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Try not to let you down if I do. Good
luck in God's. If I do, I'm trying to let you down. Make sure I water your horse out there. Trying to make it Thursday. Yes. Also, yeah, they making a plug for the talk on Thursday for the uh Joseph came along. It'll be I won't bore people. So,
anybody watching, if they watch in time at the uh historical society, uh at 700 p.m. Phil will be discussing uh Joseph Holly. So make it if you can on Thursday. On Thursday. Thursday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Uh you
have a quorum. Would you care to open Oh my goodness. I'm getting caught up in all these late email. Hold on. Uh we can continue on new business if you Yeah, please. Thanks. I just want to get this uh transfer of the new information. Okay, let's just start the top. Uh vote
to approve minute meeting minutes of April 28th. Um I make a motion to approve this. Look good. I will second. Uh we have police chief. That is going to be part of the joint committee. Um so for warrants looked over the
warrants. Nothing out of the ordinary. Uh so I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the accounts payable warrant in the amount of $18,746.3. The payroll warrant in the amount of $136,236.80. and the payroll deduction warrant in the amount of $34,54368.
Second. Thank you. Meetings attended by four members. None since last week. Uh Baronique, uh Ron and I met with um some residents on on concerns for the repaving around
um uh orchard and maple, but that wasn't really a meeting. But we did attend it. Uh public comments, none, no unfinished business. On to new business. Um
discussion and vote on the Germaine scholarships. So in past years we took the um uh interest that was earned on the account divided that interest by how
many applicants we had and that would be the sum for each of the applicants. I think that has been a good model. Yeah, I would suggest we continue to use that model. And we had four applicants this year. No, there's six. Six and the deadline's
gone. 18th of April. So, what's the amount that each that we're going towards? You said how many? There's six in there. What's the interest from last year?
Um, interest is 24 49274 six. That's how many applicants there are. There's six applicants. That's Yeah, that's a lot for Well, and I gave the
amount that we gave last year. That's That's over double. What did we award last year per person? 1,744. How about 2,000 this year? I think that sounds reasonable.
All right. I'll make a motion to um vote that each of the six applicants for the J Germaine Foundation scholarship receive 2,000 each. Second. Thank you. Congratulations to those six applicants.
You ready? Yes. I make a motion to call the finance committee meeting to order. Got it. 605. And I make a motion to approve the finance committee meeting minutes of April 28th. Second. All in favor? I I. All right. Thank you.
All right. Since we have our police chief here, why don't we move down to the second to the bottom uh uh second to the last on the list, a discussion vote of line fund transfer request for the police department. Do we have the proper
request in front of us now? the dates seem seem accurate. Um, is there anything you'd like to discuss on this or do you guys have any questions? Yeah, just my questions are which accounts
specifically using English. So, both of them are coming from the payroll. Okay. And one is going into I can't remember which fund that one is. 420 and 440. 420 420 is I think
is miscellaneous office equipment type thing. And then the other one is software. The 440 440. Which one is Okay. 440 is Yeah. 440. The other one was miscellaneous. Yes. Well, the other one's office supplies.
Office. So 111 is office. No, 111 is payroll. from one that's from one from payroll to software and the other from payroll to uh I mean I can talk so so firearms are
considered office supplies but it's because I don't have you don't have you have to put them into a some category yeah some account okay I'm surprised we don't have a separate account for can never helps put holes in paper, right? Paper weight. That's how you make the
three ring binders. Yeah. It's a one It's a one hole punch. Okay. Okay. That very powerful. I I have a question. So, the current firearm in inventory, how old is it? They're about 17 years old. 17? Yeah, it's way over. No, that can't
be cuz we we bought some not that long ago. Not since I've been 17 years ago. that I've been I've been on this committee longer than I Yes. I was able to track down the invoice going through Jerk Brothers and which is a bit company that I'd be
buying them from. Yeah. And they were able to figure out was October of something 17 years ago. So I would have thought around 10. Okay. I mean is there there's a lifespan on a firearm for law enforcement? They're
they typically like to replace them every five to eight years because of the wear tolerances, the amount of ammunition that we throw through them every year for qualifying and practice. We got to qualify and we got to do it basically twice a year. So, you're
looking at a lot of rounds for each of the firearms. Um, a lot of times, especially with the firearms we have now, they're discontinued. So trying to find parts to like springs for the magazines to make sure the bullets actually go up into the gun. Um that was
a big failure of the old 1.0. Um I honestly don't know if they've ever been fixed. Some of them have but some of them have not. Um and also we have a 45 caliber gun now and I'd like to switch that to a 9 millimeter. um it's cost-effective over the long haul and
the 9 millimeter has drastically changed in accuracy and the way that it when it hits a it's an object it's changed awesomely. Um if that's a word it is tonight. So that's the main reasons why.
Also the 45 kicks back a lot more. So if you have to do repeated rounds, god forsake we ever have to use it, the 9 millmter doesn't have that recoil. So, you're more accurate at putting rounds down range. Um, and I did not get the top of the line gun. I got the bottom of
the line gun because I'm not ready for the optics. That's the big thing that makes them um a higher cost is the optics on them. You can get them optic ready. You can get the optic site on them, which are phenomenal, but um talking with a firearms instructor,
there's no course for the optics yet through the MPTC. So, I'd like to keep everything. Yeah. You know, kosher with MPTC and iron sights have been around forever. So, so if you buy new firearms,
what do we do with the old firearms? Just keep them. I'm hoping to trade them in. Um, unfortunately they are paper weights. They are office supplies. Um, I don't know. There was talk at one point of $150 per gun. They may be a little
lower than that now because it's just they're getting inundated with firearms. I don't think you're going to get happy updating the uh, you know, the inventory. So, what's our question? Says eight eight weapons. Yes. So, I'd like
to have a couple just in case something goes wrong with one or heaven forbid somebody gets involved in a in a live shooting, then we have to take that gun and it's we lose that gun for a while. And so, do we have good storage for
that? We definitely will come the new police station. Yeah. Okay. Right now, not so much. They are kept very safe. Yeah. They're just not where I'd like to have them. And actually the the firearms that I'm
looking at buying have not actually gone up a ton since in the last 17 years. It's relatively about the same amount. Oh, and the other one in there is a purchase of a new shotgun
um to go with So both shotguns are the same. Oh, there's the launch part. And is this Wait, so is this a line to line transfer? This is I don't know. What's the question? What are you using the shotgun for? Shooting
things. I thought it was a tool punch. No. So, we we carry the shotgun and we carry the rifle. We carry both. um depending on which kind of circumstance like if you have to put down an animal like a large animal which we have a lot of in this town um the shotgun's much
easier to do that with then pulling out the the rifle so and a 9 miller won't do it 9 millm just aggravate a bear say so just from your own safety point of view I'm glad we're up
there that's a disaster if you have it yeah well nothing is more uh the pucker factor when you pull the trigger and it doesn't go bang that's not fun because goes you have a hand grenade in there. So by doing and the other reason why I
want to keep with so right now we have a Smith and Wesson M&P 1.0 even though they didn't call it the 1.0 back then. This is the M&P 2.0 and the 9mm platform. So, I've talked with our neighboring chief who's kind of big into firearms and because I was thinking like
I want to get away from Smith and Wesson, go with a different manufacturer because I think there's better guns out there. And he's his suggestion was if you go to a different frame, you have to put probably a minimum of a thousand rounds down range to get that muscle
memory of drawing, pointing, firing. Because if you can imagine, you got your your barrel and then your hand part. It's different on each different firearm. It's a little bit of a different angle. The M&P 1.0 is the same as the 2.0. It's the same frame, so you
don't have to put as many rounds down range, so it's kind of cost effective. So, I'm like, "All right, everybody knows how to shoot this one." So, okay. Why reinvent the wheel? Yeah. And they're cheaper, which is always good. I have an
MNP22. I like it. It's good gun. An M22. It's a little rifle 22. Incredible. Did those jam on him? No. Not like an M16. That thing jammed up. Okay. Any further questions? Further
questions? So, we'll have two separate line two separate votes on each one for each line. So I make a motion to request end of your line transfer from the uh 111 payroll account to the 440 office supply account in the amount requested
of $1,558.81. Second hold on what account were you putting that in? 440. Okay. You said the office Oh 440 is what then? Software. Software. I'm sorry. Software. Sorry. 440 software. Thank you. Thank
you. 440 software. The amount $1,558.81. Second. All in favor? I I Thank you. Carries 3. Second uh vote on a year end line transfer and make a motion to request the amount of
$6,929 from payroll to the office supply account 420. Second. All in favor? I I I three out. I will mirror both of their um motions.
Motions. Yes. Second. Thank you. Um sign these. They have to sign it. Anybody got any other questions of the fire or police department while I'm here? Oh, um, if there's a way that we can change
like that online when you look up the assessor's maps. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. And it doesn't have the name. Yes. Is there a way to change that? Because a lot of times when I do my investigations and we're getting into property lines and stuff, it's nice to be able to pop that
up and know like, "All right, Don Bates owns this one here. Yeah, Phil Can owns this one here. There's the line." I I wondered about that, too, cuz I have an app on my phone that I pay for. It's like a hunting app where I was like, "Sweet. I can save like, you know, however." The GIS map,
Massachusetts map shows that detail. How accurate it is, I don't know. The board of assessors had stipulated this a while back, but I think it's time for us to request of them that they change it and just make it so that everybody can access because it is publicly available.
It's publicly available. It's available in different places that And there's not like you are giving them like dates of birth, social security. No, it's literally it's the same stuff that I have on my hunting app. That's like Yeah. that big a hunter. No, but it's just useful. It's actually You know what? It's for It's for metal detecting
honestly so that my husband can can know who to approach to ask if he can metal detect on their property. No. And that's that's what Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I know when I was working on weight, I used it all the time. I came up here and started using it cuz I could finally
found it. It was very difficult to find in Yeah. But I was looking going this doesn't help me at all because I got to call the assessors and there's nobody ever in the assessor's office. So, I'd rather send smoke signals in order to get an assessor. Can we uh I
mean, is that up to the assessors or is that is that something that we They're in charge of the GIS maps, but I I I would be thrilled if the select board made the request of the board of assessors. I have make a recommendation right here.
Very blanching. You have staff access that Oh, no. That's not Massachusetts interactive. Massachusetts. Yeah. just let so why can you go to the mass and not the content that's just they're trying to be secret squirly and
it saves stuff I can understand but it's just it's public information I I move that we um recommend to the board of assess or to the yeah to the board of assessors that they make um property owner names available on our local GIS maps I'll second we vote on something
that's not on that agenda oh you can write yeah I mean let's recommend that you could recommend. Yeah. Thank you. I told you I forget. Well, it is in her. It's in my TA. I didn't
forget cuz I put it in my TA update that you and I agreed on that. So, okay. Great. Other than that, police department, I don't have a lot to to pass on. Things have been pretty good. Great. Got to get that building done.
What's going on with the siding? Let's get that siding up. Let's go. We need to get the roof. Need to get the roof because once the roof goes on, then they can start putting up sheet rock. Got it. Siding is fine. We can do siding at the end. How's the inside? I haven't looked inside yet. It's full of 2x4s.
And wire. And wire. Oh, so the electrical. Oh, yeah. Electrical. Plumbing's done. Electrical truck's been there for weeks. They just need to do insulation and drywall. Roof. Yeah, they got to get the roof, which the roof arrived last week. So
that's just waiting for good weather. Yeah. Oh, so that's what they were waiting on. Yep. I'm just waiting. Yeah, cuz there was something some issues with it initially. Yeah. So, but that's been ordered, delivered, and just waiting for good weather to put it on and then they'll start hammering out shoe rock. Cool. Okay. Well, thank you the don. All
right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. As always, if you ever have any questions, feel free to let me know. Okay. I'll be up tomorrow. I don't answer your question. Since we're on line transfers, let's just stick with
that. Um discussion and vote reserve fund transfer request from the ambulance department submitted by Gemma. Um amount requested $1,843.65 to be transferred to the
ambulance 430 maintenance and repairs. Um, appropriations only $2172. This will be used to pay for repairs done by Bren Towing and Automotive Repair on the ambulance. 1843. No, no, no. It's not 217. It's
1,800. Yeah, I see that. That's the amount. Yeah, that's left in the balance due is 184365. Yeah, it's ask for how much is left in the account right now. Yeah, there's only 217 left in the account. Yeah. Do you gentlemen have any questions on this? No, I have a question. So, the
ambulance actually broke down while I was doing an emergency transport. Is that That's what it says. That broke down on a call. Oh, boy. It's a wheel bearing. Basically, caliper, wheel bearing, and then the rotors and brakes. And so, everything else back on in
March, I think February the call was an idea. I don't have the I mean this this date for this invoice is March 3rd so it was probably February. Yeah.
Well, I guess we need a new Well, yeah. First thing. Yeah, we're saving for one. You think we'll have an idea of what the uh price could be by town meeting? Um, no, I don't. But I know that Gemma says they're close and um it looks
highly highly likely we'll have a special town meeting in the fall. Yeah. To deal with the purchase of the ambulance. All right. So, and then she's hoping that the price will come in between 410 450,000 which means we're almost there because after annual town
meeting we'll have 410,000. So, yeah, we should be in pretty good shape. I want to be in very good shape. 1040 grand is still different, right? Yeah. Okay. So, for the reserve fund transfer, the only person that needs to sign is the chair of the finance committee. Oh
my goodness. I've got a personal I have to vote on the second page. Thank you. Have you any questions or any further comments, thoughts on uh No questions. All right. I make a motion to request $1,843.65
65 cents to the Amplins uh maintenance repairs budget 430 from the reserve fund from the reserve. Second. All in favor? I second. Thank you.
All right. Moving on to the discussion and vote on the reserve fund transfer request from the treasurer. Jan Warner. amount requested 14,000 to be transferred to 900 employee benefits. The current balance of that
um reserve fund is $38,564.82 amount request would be used for health insurance and Medicare. Um this is due to the increase in eligible employees and pay increases. And again, since this is a
reserve uh transfer from a reserve fund, obviously all of us need to vote, but the only signature is yours. And how does the reserve fund get repopulated? Is that how much we put in 40,000 over here,
I should mention? I think I sent out an email on it. President 14,000 transfer. Um we've used 19,000 of the reserve funds so far in FY25. There's 21,000 left. After these, there'll be just over 5,000 left in the reserve fund. Yeah.
No questions. Anybody any questions? I make a motion to transfer from the reserve fund $14,000 for the health insurance Medicare. Second. Second. Second. All in favor? I I thank you.
Car motion. Second. Thank you. Okay, last one is another lineto line transfer um request from the highway uh salary to highway expenses for milling, reclamation, and paving on Shelurn Falls
Road in Baptist Hill to Emerson Hollow. So, it's just uh Yeah, it's from payroll to Yeah. what materials and so few Yeah. Right. Um I don't know the exact number having open uh the exact number it's 90,000
um lineto line like I said due to having open positions for the year payroll has a surplus with the increase in pay for staff we do not anticipate having surpluses in the future. So I had questions about this one because we haven't had any discussions
about paving Shelurn Falls Road. It wasn't budgeted for the year and was it I mean we wouldn't be doing a line transfer if it had been budgeted for the for the fiscal year. Well, I'm not sure what you mean by budgeted because normally the roads get done through
chapter 90. Okay. Um so and I think Ron had said he mentioned during his budget talk that he had brought up that he was going to be asking for this again. Well, he didn't put up he said that he ended up but didn't say a dollar amount. Yeah. No. No. Well, I'm sure at the time you
didn't know what we're hoping to do. Well, the the plan is to get this paving done up to Emerson Hollow and then in the Mass Works grant that we still have to finalize. The paving will go from Emerson Hollow to Newol. So then all of
Shelurn Falls Road will be finished. Um, but like I said, normally these kinds of things are um through chapter 90, but because he there's so much going on in what he has to accomplish this year. Um, and he had the excess.
Yeah. And if any of you have traveled on Shelurn Falls Road, you know that the covert damage repair made a mess of it. So, yeah, there's a been a lot of complaints actually about that section. Yeah. So, is he actually going to pave Emerson Hall? No, no, no. It's just from
It's just this bit is just this little bit. Basically, it's covering the culverts to the center of town. Okay. But that wasn't your question. You said he's going to then pave Emerson Hollow. No, no, from a plan. That's still going to be a dirt. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry if I did that then
I misspoke. It's from right now. It's from where right starts at Baptist Hill to Emerson Hollow and then with a mass works grant it should be from Emerson Hollow to Newh Hall but all on Shelurn Falls road. So that will complete cuz he's already completed most of Shelurn
Falls Road from New all the way down to Shelurn or the road you turn to get to the gun club. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so do we have any kind of a uh paving plan because in the future it' be good
to know. Yes. Um well I can read off the list my TA I think here somewhere of the and what is the and also not the plan but also the the payment plan right is it if it's going to be chapter 90 money this is what I'm this is what's
swirling around in my brain we're not using chapter 90 money we're using town money we're using essentially what would go to free cash at the end of the year if we didn't spend this money because it's unused south payroll funds correct Okay. Correct. However, chapter 90 money
isn't going to get us very far with the amount of paving that needs to be done. Okay. So then that raises further questions like what do we do in future years? Are how are we accounting for that? Right now I don't think we've budgeted for paving in any of the recent
years that I've been on this committee. Even though we've paid for paving in the aftermath of the flooding for certain sections of roads, but we seem to be pulling it out of various pots that aren't chapter 90 money. So the the only two pots of money that come into the
town, we do not, as you said, we do not actually have a paving budget. Ron might be able to do some little repairs out of his regular budget, but to actually do a road, I think it's like a million a mile now. So it's it's a lot of money and we
just don't have. So I think he's trying to pull from as many sources as he can. Normally what will happen is he'll have a a roster of roads that he wants to work on and he'll just take as much of the chapter 90 funds as he can and get as much work done as he can. There's a
second pot of money that's come through in the last couple years called RAP. Um it's winter, it's about winter roads and they gave us some extra funds. Um which has increased it a little bit, but if you're still not even getting a half a million dollars, you're not getting much road done. So is this 90,000 on top of
some other funds that he has for paving or is this the totality of the paving funds that he needs for this project? this between this and the Mass Works grant should take care of the rest of
Shelurn Falls Road. He's got another seven, eight, nine roads that he's trying to get done this season. So, where he's taking that all from, I'm not sure. Delibar is probably still going to come out of the federal prehazard mitigation grant. Mhm. Um and um
hopefully we'll be able to take for the Pine Hill, Upper Baptist, and Baptist Hill out of the Mass Works Grant. Um because all that infrastructure is coming out of the Mass Works Grant. I'm not sure from Ron yet. We have to finalize that to see whether the paving
itself is coming out of that or if that's coming out of chapter 90. Yeah. Okay. So I I mean in my again my concern here is town meeting passed the budget based on a payroll number for for Ron's department. Now we're saying we're
shifting all $90,000 over to paving. In essence, we're taking free cash and and it's feels like it should be a vote in town meeting that says this is reverting to free cash. Let's move it over to to this line item for paving. I
I feel like that's a lot of money for us to just sort of automatically sign off on. Um well, it is within the purview of the finance committee, so because these things do come up. Yeah. Well, and and by the time you get to town meeting, it's too late really. I mean, I I don't
I don't know how you would do that at town meeting because you're taking it out of a last year's budget. Three years ago was 45,000. Last year was 80,000. Now it's 90,000. It is we're asking for an increase in wages and size which may be a well if we're 90,000
under ask 47,000 but he did specifically say because he's been so understaffed. He said with the increase in pay for staff he doesn't anticipate having it's not going to happen again because as long as he's fully Yeah. But again this is again this is one of those workarounds right? Oh we happen to have
this extra payroll money that we didn't use. But nobody in town voted for this money to be used for for roads. But they don't it's they approved the but it's it's it's line to line. I I don't I don't know. No, they approved the total budget, but it was a total budget
comprised of a bunch of different line items. Article two, you know, of the warrant and and I'm just saying it it feels we strange to me. We can vote on this. But so the uh what is account 5400?
5,400 that okay so it should be a 4 433540 and then whatever his I don't know I don't have that one in front of me well it's in other words he oh he didn't put the specific one what he's saying here is it's going from salary to expenses which is what the lineto line
is so he didn't put the specific so there's going to be expenses here for for what for some s some labor expenses Right. No, this is going to be for materials, I'm sure, because it's only
an expenses. Yeah. Everything to prepare and maybe contracting includes contracting the paving. Yeah. Well, the first time we did it was 40,000. I don't think that was from I think that was from the uh actual snow and ice that was left over. Gravel and
sand that he moved over. I don't know if it went then the following year it went from payroll, didn't it? No, you have you can't move the snow. You can't do budget to budget as far as I know, but you can definitely do the line to line within a budget because all town meeting has approved the total
budget and you and you have the discretion starting May 1st to say we need to transfer money here or there to complete these jobs and if you have more payroll then you can move it to expenses right and that's the perview of um finance and select board to make that
decision. I mean, we've had salary surpluses in the highway budget just because we have been understaffed. Um, right. That's not that's not the issue. The issue isn't whether Sheldon Falls Road needs to be repaid. That's not an issue either. It's it's just the process
for allocating the funds. Yeah. But if you I'm not saying we don't have the right to even move do the line by line transfer. It just feels it feels like the highway department. It's big big bucks. Yeah. But it's basically free cash that we're having. Yeah. It's
basically we're saying we're spending free cash on paving Shelurn Falls Road. It's not It's free cash because we have because we didn't have a full staff right now. Wait. If we had the full staff, right? If we had the full staff and we didn't have this money, how would
we then we wouldn't even be having this conversation because we would have $90,000. There's a surplus in a budget on a on in any department at the end of the fiscal year. Where does that surplus go? Free cash. Free cash. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, so anyway, um I'm not sure how I'm going to vote on this right now. Does it I know we need to pave the road, but I'm I'm not happy with the the way. Does the road need paving? Well, that's for sure.
Yeah, it doesn't look Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So, I'm not going to take it any since we went from 45 to 80 an hour or 90 and u you know, it's not really best practice to be doing what we're doing. It's almost like an
incentive to underhire people and undermaintain then they can do road paving, right? That's that that's that's the part the capital budget the budgeting aspect is where I have problems with this. Well, what this means is if if you want to take it this way, it means it isn't going to happen
until who knows when. And can it be incumbent? You I don't even know how what do you have to make a uh an article a separate article. It's too late to do an article, right? You would have to go back to precash and then we'd have to put it on special town meeting. Special town meeting special
town meeting which would be which would be December. December. December. Yeah. So, I mean, what's the point? No, I I get it. I get it. That's that's part of the annoyance is is that we sort of have
been backed into a corner in a way, too. Well, you know, Yeah. I No, I I I totally see that. Um I mean, I just don't know that there's any I mean, it's we it's kind of unfortunate that we have the surplus. Well, no. But it means that
we, you know, we paid higher taxes than we should have paid if we had a surplus. That's what that means. Well, it means that we weren't able to like we weren't able to hire the people that we thought. Well, yeah. The reasons are are manifold. I I get that. But at the end of the day, it should revert to free
cash and then we could make a decision as to whether it's going to impact our tax rates for the coming year. But, you know, we're basically saying, "No, we're, you know, we're saying it's all fine. We're going to throw 90 this extra free $90,000." Just a reminder,
this is the from the budget from last year. I understand that. I understand. So, but budget was presented as a line item budget article. Anybody at town meeting can question any line in the budget and have it considered in town meeting. So I think I and I totally
understand what you're saying, but I think given how much it costs to pave a road and how many roads need to be taken care of, that's my understanding is that our highway super is just trying to do his best to find as much money as he can. Otherwise, I'm sure this would have
to come out of chapter 90 and then that takes away from another. We need a better process. We need a more transparent process. Yeah. Okay. We can't we can't get to the 11th hour at the budget and then do you know well these only can only start at May 1st. You can't even entertain these until May
1st, right? But but we should have we should have known what kind of surpluses we had and whether there might be a request to use those surpluses. How could you know until you get because you know what you're hiring has been for the whole year. You know what your payroll. You know if you're running behind on payroll, but we've had people come and go. So you don't know. Yeah. But you
already know that you're not going to, you know, even if you hired somebody today, you're not going to use up all the surpluses that you that you acrewed over the course of the year. So, you already know you were going to be in the in the positive category from a payroll. Well, and that's I think why he brought it up during his budget and said that he
was going to ask for this. We did not have specifics. Yeah. We did not have any specifics. It was an idea. It was a concept that was floated. It wasn't Nothing is real until we see numbers. And would you have called for a special town meeting now or a month ago? No, I'm
just saying the appropriate thing here is to revert it to free cash and then put it as a warrant article. I mean, that's that's the way it should be done because it should be part of the highway department budget for I agree. I still But it's I mean if we make that decision, it's it's it's too late to get
it on the It is too late. Yes. That's why we're that's why we're annoyed. Yeah. No, I know. Sometimes with the May 1st timing, it's going to be too late to get it on the warrant by the time you can actually I think you're missing you're missing my
point sometimes. Well, I I understand what you're saying, but I think things change so much that it's really difficult to get the numbers that you're looking for in enough time. I I don't I'm not I'm not I'm not saying one way or the other. I'm just trying to present whatever arguments I can. I mean I guess
what like what would the solution be like just have a threshold like that that that we don't want to get line to line transfers of a certain amount during this budget process this year we didn't get a lot of updates for actual year to date versus budgeted it was pretty pretty lax well you got
you got Mike Cassell yeah Mike Cell's report it nice if we've been updated at least when we went to vote in article two through at least the end of March there's no commentary yeah but I don't have it on here we used to have on the omnibus. I think he's referring to the omnibus which doesn't reflect year-to- date spending which for me would have
been helpful because I could have seen though okay we have an underage or an overage or at budget whatever but even that won't necessarily give you what you need to know because sometimes things come up in the and some some departments the money gets spent in the last two months so it's still never going to give
you I get that payroll payroll for the fire department is it should now it should be fairly steady year round right the stable crew in terms of well we haven't had a stable crew since I've been here. So, but I mean that's changed supposedly, right? Within the last couple months, right? Still down two
people. At the end of the day, we had not budgeted anything for paving of shelter on this road. Can I can I interrupt here? Sure. I understand that there's a desire for a better process. Okay. Um, I also think that sometimes
practicalities might even in a in a setting like this might even my biggest concern is any of these contracts going to Ron's cousins, brother, whatever uh for this for this paving. I assume you
guys have that under control that you would know that they that wouldn't be the case. I mean my my concern is if you're going to spend the money are you getting value are you getting you and is it not going to you know a nepotistic u
situation proper bidding but from a practical point of view have a busted up Shelurn Falls falls road close to this the village here it doesn't get better on its own it just gets worse if you don't take care of it and that's you
know sure I'd like to see a better process and I think that that could be discussed but from a practical point of view you have the money here as Verique said chapter 90 money comes in ne it's it's going to be available for the other
roads which trust me need to work so um I'm you know we we can vote but I'm thinking how I'm feeling about it I'm going to say for the last three budget cycles we've talked about the way the highway department is
budgeted for full staff and year after year after year they they come up with extra payroll because they weren't able to staff. And one of the things we've been trying to avoid is that practice that says, "Oh, let's create let's create an incentive where we don't have
to hire somebody. We end up with a surplus at the end of the year and then we can apply it to paving the roads." Okay, that's what we've been trying to avoid. and your net that number has gone up and up and up. Okay, I get it. And I I understand the need for I also
understand from the point of view of the highway department that it's a lot easier to overbudget, if you will, to a certain amount than to come asking for more money. And that's just the reality of the budget. But I don't think anything was overbudgeted at all. Well,
I'm using putting that word in. Right. I think it was appropriately budgeted. And the problem is for staffed for a fully staffed apartment with that and that's Yeah. No, no, I understand and I completely understand what you're saying. Um I guess and I guess the part again I don't want to be
infor is is where was the plan to pave Shelurn Falls Road when we were doing the 2025 budget? What I what I get or 2025 because we're pulling it out of 2025 budget funds, right? All right. I'd like to see a pavement plan, you
know, just going forward. I just it this is in the interest of of, you know, clarity and and, you know, transparency. Well, that could be and that could be I mean, I'm happy to try to work on that with Ron. I know. Oh, there's my TA update. So, the the
roads that are he's had up on the website and has told me about that are on his list to get done this season if possible. Um, obviously Shelurn Falls Road to finish it. That's number one. Baptist Hill Cemetery, Delibar, Ives I
um Manning, Orchard, Parsons, Reed Bridge, and Upper Baptist. It would be helpful for the finance committee if we can have the source of funding for those projects. The only sources we have for chapter 90. There's nothing else. So then what? That's why he's trying. He's going to try to get estimates and what
we might we think we might get from chapter 90. So we have some idea. Well, the formula just changed. Yeah. So, we're probably going to get just over I want to say a half a million this year between chapter 90 and the federal rep, but you know that's not set yet people,
right? Oh, no. No, it's not set. The budget for the hasn't been settled yet at the state level. So, we So, the honest answer is we really don't know until we get it. Yeah. So, isn't that is there anything regarding tie roads in the state?
There's, you know, tie roads. tie like it ties two villages together. Oh. Oh, like f a lot of those are federally assisted because they're major I don't know. So is that just wrapped into the chapter 90? Is that where where anything that's in Conway that isn't a state road
we have to pave? No, but like Weightley Road got Didn't it get Tai special funding because it's a tie? It's considered Well, so what happened is with the flood? No, this this had nothing to do with the flood even because it was paved before the flood.
Well, then that I I don't know. Yeah, I remember that it was paved a number of years before. I wasn't I don't think I was living here, but I'm assuming that was chapter 90. There's there's nothing else that unless um you know, you have a paving note unless you're borrowing money. That's the We do have paving
notes. We did do that a couple years ago. We paved on the weight side on like a year. You know, I just I thought they got additional funding from the Commonwealth if it's this tie tie road village to village kind of. Maybe that's more kind of part of chapter 90 or
something. I I don't think it's in the formula though. Mostly we we were we were helped after the flood because with five of our fally assisted by Mass D, but I've never heard anything in the chapter 90 formula that says anything about, you know, getting more money because you've got tie-in roads. Maybe,
maybe. And I'm just missing it, but I've heard that. This Andrea Llamas, and she knows she knew about this. She's still up in Bachoon. She's in Northfield. Oh, Northfield. Okay.
So, I agree with Allan and John that the process needs to be ironed out in a better fashion and that we should be aware of um if a department has a surplus, what they intend to do with that
surplus, if it doesn't go back into free cash. I will say that I think that the need um especially when it comes to um safety for our drivers trumps process
in this point. So I'll make a motion to um approve the line transfer request from the highway department uh to reclaim uh Shelurn Falls Road. Second. Thank you. No further
questions. Do you want us to make a motion, too? I would like you to make I make a motion to do a line of line transfer of $90,000 from the highway wages to the uh paving line, whatever that is. I don't have the exact numbers
in front of me. 5400. 5,400 as requested. Second. All in favor? I All right. Three. Uh we can all have Rahm come in at some point in time and just discuss some of the issues we've had with Yeah. Maybe can can he do something
for the uh pre-Town meeting? Oh, I'm sorry. We have to sign that too. Yeah, I was just going to Oh, yeah. Send it there. Can we do it for the pre? Thank you for coming and talk about Rose the free time meeting or Oh, I don't think that's a good idea. Not a free time meeting.
No, it'll devolve into that. So, people get to pick three subjects, right? Yeah. All right. So, if Ron's there, it's all going to be Ron. Yeah. All right. Well, and he's already got a couple items, right? They're going to be contested,
but we can certainly have a conversation about what kind of process and procedures. It would be helpful to know what the schedule is. I don't know if he has it on the website. put the schedule on the on his on the Facebook page. But I mean a real schedule would be you know what
dates and Oh, he can't see dates. Yeah, that's the problem. It's not weather dependent. It's weather depending and well there could be estimated cost and source of funding. Yeah. Estimated and source of funding. We don't need to have an exact equipment
as you know like the grater. Yeah. So a grater. We have a grater. Yeah. Okay. Now we have articles two and 15. Yeah. Discussion and revote on articles 2 and 15 on town warrant. Um we don't need to bring those up.
Um so the um the overall increase is 1.55% now. Yes. And and what was it 1.48 48 previously or honestly I've been through it so many times I don't remember. I mean it wasn't a huge increase. No it actually it I
think it went it went down a touch. Yeah. So the the four changes that had to be made sort of last minute. One were one was um two were my mistakes. One was the town clerk had asked for an increase so
therefore didn't get a cola and I had the cola baked into it. I had to take that out. I had not gone to fire because the everybody had voted that the stipens would now be by request only. I needed to get them to request
it. So they both requested for both the departments of 3%. So I went back in and fixed that. Then um the Maya sent us an updated form which was more money. So I had to adjust that. Um and then because
the fire um ambulance department budget changed then article 15 which is the balance of the ambulance department budget above 25,000 that's in article two the number changed. So those are the those are the shifts for the actual
budget. Um and on so what was it what was the total net amount that it went up increase for the four stipens I mean um honestly I didn't keep track from the last version I don't know it if it even went I think I got up
um it's 1.55 now which is percent percent above last year's budget which is phenomenally low. Yeah. And if you want a really good piece of news in terms of our financial shape, I just
went over this with Mike Coachella today. You're in the same file. I'm like, you eg. But this says 1.23%. Yeah, this says 1.23 on your mine is 1.9. I have the latest iteration. I thought your last email said it was 1.55%. It is 1.55. Are you in the select
board packets? Yes. Yeah. And I put the wrong thing in there, too. It says final 2025. Are you on combined? No, just article two combined. No, article two combined is what you need to look at. Article two
combined has 1.55. Yes. Thank you. And the previous increase was almost 3%. So it's half of the prior. Yeah. Well, from last year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I thought you meant how much did it change between when I made the corrections and now I think that's what
he did. Okay, I think that's what Allan was asking. Okay, so so the good news for us is our maximum allowable levy limit right now was 700 um 7,230,863. Our excess levy capacity is
now at 1,242,716, which is a very healthy excess levy capacity. So yeah, that that kind of made my day. Thank you. Yeah. And also our other local local receipts were 72,000 above
budget from the end of well and and Mike did talk about that today because remember that that spreadsheet came back to me from DLS and they had said you know you could bump up it's been 234,000 is our estimated for four years. Yep. and he bumped it up to 256 which was the
recommendation. But of course it could be a really tough year and you know so he's a little he's a little nervous because you know if it's very tough and people can't pay their excise tax then going to have more beers at the Conway but it's still conservative enough that
I think it's you know because we were so over with our I think it's super conservative. Yes. Yeah. And hasn't adjusted for inflation. Yeah. Right. Right. Well, I don't think excise tax does it does that even adjust for inflation? I think that I think the base
rate is flat. It's been It's flat. It depends on what kind of car you're getting, but it's based on the economy and this and that and excise tax change. If your car is 5 years old, you're paying the minimum rate on I'm paying the minimum. Yeah, most most of us are. Not all though. He's No, not me. I'm
trying to help this time. Don't buy a camper or a boat. I'm going to buy cryptocurrency next. Any other questions on article 2 or 15? And then article
15 to sign it. Oh, that's right. Article 15. Yeah. What was um article 15 is the ambulance from what's coming out of reserve receipts from the ambulance to make up the balance. two 1.55 it's 43481 is what it is now
43481 2/3 vote required still so I can make a motion right for us for select board um I move that we approve um the change in article 2 to a 1.55% um increase over last year's budget.
I have a second. Um I'll make a motion to approve the um transfer $43,481 for the ambulance uh receipt fund in article 15.
Second. Yes. Sorry. I put it on the front just so you have to Oh, it's only us. It's not the finance, right? Yeah. The select board. Is the warrant fully closed yet or
I mean the public invitations and they're signing it right now. It's done. It's completely done. So there's no last minute petition. Nope. Those last minutes would have had to have happened three weeks ago when the warrant got closed. What was that? Two weeks ago.
Pretty good. Yeah. And um it it's really looking very very likely that we're going to have a special town meeting for ambulance and somebody else wanted to do a CPC thing. So I think we'll you know if there's anything that kind of fell between the cracks, we'll probably have a special town meeting anyway. Thank
you. So the finance committee meeting to make a select since the secretary or we going to make a recommendation or we offer the hook he wants to do it. No, please. We have to revote a Yeah, you have to revote. Yeah. So this is to resend the article 2 recommendation from April
28th and make a recommendation to vote the newly presented article 2 as approved by the select board. Anyone second? Second. All in favor? I I I three in favor and article 15 to
transfer to amend article 15 a vote for approval from April 22nd to the new amount that the select board has recommended and what's the number again Chris 43
43 43481 $43,481 $43,481 as requested Second. All in favor? I I All right. Thank you. And are we a journal? I think we're we're we're dismissed. We've made enough trouble tonight.
All right. Thank you, Finance. You're welcome. Thank you, John. I make a motion to adjourn. Second. Thank you. Very good. Well, I hope you don't have to see each other next week. You never know. Well,
if I if I don't continue with this, I do want to get on your board at some point. Oh, really? I would love to learn. We have an open wreck because, you know, by our bylaws, did you miss six meetings in a row? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So, there is a vacancy. You're out. So, we do have I
would like to I would like to mention at the pre-T town meeting and the town meeting that we do have an open position on the finance. Yeah, you should we should talk about all the open positions. Yeah, it's really important. If you want to get a reduction in the property tax, this is a great way to do it. But seriously,
we're trying we're trying. All right, we're going uh Eric, we're going back up to new business. discussion vote on the contract refer cog um for the uh cooperative inspection program nothing's really changed since last not
that I'm seeing right we're still the contracting for all the same services yeah okay um I move to that we vote um to accept the updated contract for COG for the Franklin County Cooperative Inspection Program I will second now
there's oh there's It's just two to sign. Yeah, got it. Understood. And just so you're aware, thank you. Just so you're aware, there will be handouts at town meeting on the perog charter and also the planning board.
We need to copy for weekly assessments to you. In the meantime, you just have the material. Oh. Um, I think we're going to have a new person this week, so I should be able to switch it out. Thank
you. Yeah. Thank you. Good night, Zero Roy. Discussion and vote to appoint Brian Allen to the Open Space Committee for term ending in um June 30th of this year. Yeah, that's I was curious about
that just because when I looked at the other two um the other members, they were all up at 26 and 27. Technically, we can't appoint him to 28 yet until So, I said to Janet, do you want us to just appoint him through the end and then
we'll reappoint him? Yeah. In June for the 28th term. Um I move that we appoint Ryan Allen to the Open Space Committee for a term ending 6:30 2025. He's eminently qualified. Yes. overly qualified and and so happy that he's willing to serve. Same here. I'll
second this. Sure. People look at my signature and they're like, "What?" Um, so the last one, there isn't a letter for you to sign. This is just kind of to get your feedback and then I can have it
for the next meeting. This is about the bridge. Yes. Um, so it's a a letter of support to Shelurn for the repair of the Bardwell's Fairy Bridge. Is that like It's not on It's not the Bwell's Fairy. It's one that's on that road, but it's
further up. Oh, yeah. I read that wrong. Yeah. So, and I've asked her for a template because it's on Bardwells further up. It's in Shelburn, but it's not actually the on Route the Dragon Brook. Right off Route
Two. It's right off right. But when you go past their little library, Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, of course. Okay. So, for next week, um, next meeting. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. So, we'll table the vote till next meeting.
Thank you. Going on items anticipating non TA updates. Um, okay. So, uh, we talked about assessors. Um, we should have the personnel handbook update to you pretty
quickly. Um, Phyllis and I discussed this and we'd like to have it ready to roll out for July 1st. So, that would mean that we'd have to have it to you all in time for So, I think we're going to try to get it to you immediately before town meeting what
I think it's a June 2nd meeting. Um, and you saw we've talked about highway. Town clerk says the vote by mail ballots will be going out soon. Um, and then these were two of the things I was really excited about. One was this Valley Neighbors, which I had
never heard of before. And their whole purpose is to help people over 60. Look at you. You linked their address. I did. Um, to stay in their homes and they serve Weightley, Sunderland, and Deerfield. So, I've actually already sent in a query to see if there's any
way Conway can become part of the picture. That'd be great. Um, so that's one. The second one was here. I'll actually I have a transportation. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing is that they do a lot of this stuff. Yeah. The
second one I'll show you with my phone. Um Oh, man. That's great. that he just told me about is called Seeing AI. Mhm. Conways pre-Town Meeting. Dessert potluck and discussion. Monday, May
19th, 78:30 p.m. Come. So, it's reading what it sees in private. Yeah. You know that your phone already does that, right? Without that app. Yeah. There's all kinds of things on your phone. Your iPad does it. Does it really? Yeah. That's for like hearing and visually disabled.
Yeah. This is for visually. So, why would they have to make a whole separate app if your phone doesn't anyway? I don't know. They probably I don't know cuz they're probably trying to sell you something. your ad will translate to it if you pull it up. Really? Well, so there you go. So, I'm not quite as excited anymore.
Um, yeah. So, learn something. Yeah, it's under accessibility. If you go under accessibility in your settings, you'll see Yeah. You'll see what's for like visual. Like that's the same one where instead of ringing, your phone will flash a light. Uhhuh. deaf, you know, people that are deaf. Um, there's
all kinds of other things on there for that. And what that's one of them is that it will text to read. So, if I'm somebody over 60 and I had no idea, I think maybe I at least I talked to folks at Mass in Motion and stuff, Council on Aging, when I do those iPad workshops
for single. That was one of those things we did. Yeah. Was it? Okay. Yeah. If you're reading labels, you know, you need to take one of those workshops. Yeah. I do. Okay. Uh I I totally agree with you and Chief Bates though on the
GIS map. So whatever you need our support to get that going, just let us know. Okay. Okay. And it may not be an issue, you know, anymore and it just hasn't been brought up and they'll be like, "Yeah, okay, fine. No problem. It's maybe just a hold over." But yeah. So then the last thing was the rural and western mass conference on Saturday
which was so really interesting. Um, one of the things I wanted to point out, um, was about the chap because we've talked a lot about chapter 70 formula and whether we should push to have it changed. Yes. I didn't even think about this until it was brought up. But, you
know, if you open up the formula for changes and we don't have as much representation, it's not going to go in our favor. It's going to go in the favor of the people who have more reps in our population. So what there are people are trying to do our legislators is work on other
issues rural school aid that will give us what we want but not necessarily be a part of the formula. They're just afraid if it if the change of the formula would benefit most towns though depending on how they change it. That's the point. In other words, you open it up at your own
peril. It's kind of like do we want to have another constitutional convention? So that was not that was just what was presented which I thought was very interesting way to look at it. Um so I thought I'd bring that up because we've talked about it so much. Um and then
there's there was this other presenter who talked about how to how to save your town and she did really a really great job. It was very interesting. um you know because she kind of said well you know normally somebody has an idea and they they come to the select board and then it's like okay let's form a
committee and then the committee does stuff and they develop a report nothing's really happening and then the report kind of sits there and so she was saying the way that the problem is then you you can't like get people in the committees because they're not necessarily that interested in doing that. So it's
supposed to be an ideadriven um methodology. So somebody has an idea that they really like and then you know then they're motivated and then you you know you start building connections and getting people together. Everybody does little tiny steps like everybody can be
involved but they don't have to do take on the whole thing. And I don't I'm not describing it nearly as well as she did obviously but it was really it was an interesting approach. So, I've got the link on there if you want to see what Okay. what she was about. Town. Um, yeah, that's what they call it. Save
your town. Um, and you know, she talked about something like as simple as um there was this playground that she actually grew up on. And the playground equipment was like deadly to children. It was from like the 50s, right? And there was sharp metal jagged pieces and
everything. And so, first the people who were really concerned just kind of just painted it and took off the metal jagged pieces and stuff. And then things just got rolling with the parents and then five years into it, they created a 501c3 and they've got all these new playground, you know, in other words,
something that people are really passionate about, they'll put their time into. And it was also don't like don't tell people what to do. Let them come up with their own little steps. For instance, people were complaining about in one town, the sidewalks are revoling
in our downtown and we need to have a cleanup day. You know, city take care of this. and they were trying to brainstorm things and this one woman just said well I'll sweep in front of my store and all of a sudden it was like that's all it really took was for one person to say I'll take care of in front of my store
and everybody else started doing that and then it just kind of snowballed into almost like a competition for who could have the nicest sidewalk you know so anyways have a competition for who can pick up the most Titos bottles I know I was going to say something about litter
there's some save our town from litter yeah Anyway, so that's it for my update. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having me about what's on my Yeah, I'll show you later. Select board comments, concerns. I got
none right now. Um, so, uh, custodian. We already know we need a custodian. Um, Lori had suggested to, um, have that, uh, job out of the highway department. And now the highway
department is also in charge of buildings and grounds. So it only makes sense to keep it there. I think the problem is is that our highway super has needed an admin or an assistant for the longest time and this assistant could take care of all these things. So I
don't think I wouldn't move it to another department. There's no other department to move it to. Um, but I do think that not only do we need a custodian, but the highway super needs an assistant big time. Um, and if we can't get somebody in town to do this,
we need to again look at other services, just not the same company we used prior because obviously that didn't work. But I do agree with her that um we shouldn't rely on you, Adam, or anybody else to do custodian work after their full-time
jobs. Oh, I don't have to pick up the trash anymore in the field. Well, she is right. There's a lot of even when I was putting in security camera, there were people that came in on off day on a weekend that were coming in to use the restroom. So yeah, having having to
clean a public restroom is not Yeah, it's not fun in your job description. Yeah. Yeah. So I just wanted to bring that up. Um I think we need to again look outside of just hiring somebody and looking more into services again if there's a service out there
that we could use. Um, I did put it out to stam so hopefully somebody will get back to me with I mean if the woman on 116 who's found a billion people to do mold remediation I think we can find a couple companies that can you know clean
toilets. I mean yeah like there's one I mean building maintenance is one thing but I feel like just the custodial piece is completely that's a different skill set. I mean, you know, like you don't have to have someone who can come in and change, you know, whatever locks and stuff like
that. We get our grass mowed by third party. I think we can get our right toilet. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. No mail, no announcements. Next meeting is on my freaking birthday, May 19th, at the grammar school. Um, there's also going
to be the pre-Town meeting which will follow that. Pre-Town meeting 7 o'clock 700 p p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Conway Grammar School. This is a discussion that is informal, nonpartisan, and without the time pressure of town. Bring
desserts to share. There will be uh uh or serving utensils if needed and reusable cups and spoons. Beverages will be provided, but not alcoholic, unfortunately. Um, and it is Chris's birthday, so someone better bring a cake.
Um, yes. Pre-Town meeting at the school, Monday, May 19th, 700 p.m. Um, unless anybody has anything else, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Thank you.