##VIDEO ID:aEpp1_uF6fg## all right welcome everybody to the Conway joint select board meeting with finance committee for Tuesday January 21st I will call the meeting to order first item on the agenda is to vote to approve the minutes of of January 13th I look them over Adam good as always so I'll make a motion to vote to approve the minutes of January 13th I'll second all in favor I unanimous no warrants today yay uh meetings attended by select board members Erica any um yeah I was at the fog um planning meeting on Thursday night um Jeff Lacy was also there he probably has more to contribute than I do but um there's uh still a lot of kind of uncertainty around adus in Massachusetts in general and um the other big thing is that that fhog is changing their Charter not really significant um changes but that's something that we're going to have to put on the warrant for um a town meeting because they're significant enough that they require like a a vote okay I had school committee uh last Tuesday and we did start the fund um that we we approved here right that that the school committee voted for a fund so they could accept donations oh oh right um because pickleball wants to make donations um also the rest of it was just talking about potential budget issues um and updates and then W Wednesday I had negotiations or negotiations prep and tomorrow night that negotiations got it um I was part of the MVP meeting with um GZA or fog all of them all the above friends River everybody yes um I believe that was it uh public comments unfinished business none on to new business Ron we're going to go down to or actually you're on first anyway discussion and vote on wage increase from 31 to 32 uh so Corey can be work as a mechanic yes hear it working out really well and he's willing to do some mechanical work for me for us okay um which will help me out a lot um you're usually the head mechanic I'm usually doing it all yes y okay and he said he would be willing why don't you let everybody that's watching this know how much of mechanic would cost if we had to hire one per hour probably starting at $1100 an hour correct I'm in the wrong field true and as much as $180 an hour depending on where so like diesel TCH and things like that or well even your normal car mechanic now I think it's shop is 125 yeah more services cost more in Parts yep sure um I mean Erica do you have any I mean this is a steal in my mind seems like a no-brainer yeah no I was going to ask like what is this going to add to like can you accommodate this in your departmental budget but it sounds like just knowing what it sounds like you can't so our top rate is 32 anyways my budget is figured on 32 depending on their licenses he doesn't have a 4G which makes this able to happen mhm you know to stay within my budget yeah got it granted it's um pretty good steel at $32 an hour for a mechanic a local yeah a local mechanic now even even for towns what are towns paying for mechanics oh upwards to 50 there depending on what town you in right and if they can even find one right right that's the next problem right but he's also Cory's a all around really good help a good drivers and he understands how things work in general which is one of the biggest problems that right we have well it sounds like he has a work ethic yes which is big thing to yes to a town to any business well I'll make a motion that we uh raise the rate for uh mechanic um at the from 31 to 32 for Cory Skinner to work as we I will second all in favor hi hi hi unanimous thank you on tomorrow you have anything else while you're here it was quite a weekend yes it was and looks like Wednesday you're going to get more what yeah Wednesday yeah would you see that yeah I saw next weekend maybe oh really yeah oh maybe a change that's I always uh look at uh Dave Hayes the weather n he's the only one who's actually accurate Ron thank thank you for being out there doing the road yeah my road got done way earlier than usual so that was nice well we are in a better position now we do have help with the biggest problem I have right now is they need to learn our roads and yeah what plowing this was the first plow that we had with everybody yeah it's still work in progress definitely but everybody seemed to do well we got a quite a few new city people on our road so it used to be like didn't matter we're like H whenever it gets blowed didn't really care but now now I know we have some new new neighbors who are from the city thank you for waking me up at 4:00 in the morning plow the parking lot on the hollay oh you're welcome uh you know honestly I have to say that's like my favorite sound having like too I have four kids so I love a snow day so like just the sound of the plows in the middle of the night me is like speaking of it's my favorite sound in the world Ron thank you I'll make sure I go buy your house every day the plow down if anybody ever needs to pick up Cory for work early in the morning just lay on the FL and he'll come out just lay on it the whole time yeah but you can't take it that's a dick to me isn't it yeah think all right well thank you and the public safety building I don't know if you noticed but it's getting enclosed Z zip on the and you had electrical work done well there the Builder is hoping to have the windows and doors in so we can actually put a people door in the other building yeah and the electrician and the carpentry division of tech school is showing up tomorrow to start doing some work in the mechanic put a mechanical room off in the building great awesome so things are moving up there what a great thing for those kids too and they always see that building and know they were part of it going up I think that's cool so when when did you say the door and windows should come the um the Builder was saying that within two weeks oh great should be on the windows are all everything's he's already has it it's just a matter the temperatures haven't been right lot they were there m yester today they weren't there yesterday today and last Friday they were there 7:00 in the morning great great I don't know how they do the hang on to the nails but yeah Ron do you know if the people doing the tree workor on Roaring Brook are they going to move those logs they left right along the road I've made it very clear to eversource and as one that anything that is in the town right away has to be moved it can be a lot of trees right along like literally along the road to yeah I know I'm not happy about the way cut all trees a lot more the guy from Asen told me that there they're waiting for the log truck to show off too oh they do use them for lumber okay no but they that's how they pick the big Ian it used to be they cut them up and people from town took them they made it very clear that they it needs to leave if it's a a resident is asking to keep the wood that it has to be moved out of the right away okay what ever source is doing with the wood that's not on us than you all right all right thank you I'll have a good night you too thank you very much make my life easier good do you all just want to go through the budget we go through the budget because won't be here I we don't have yeah we'll go right then so we'll skip to uh skip new business down to Joint meeting with Finance um not official there's no Quorum but we're just going to review uh the budget from 292 to 69 want and this will probably be pretty quick because most of them are Level funded however this of course we're we do our Animal Control through the Sheriff's office now and I just got the request well our assessment I should say for fiscal 26 and it's gone up um what about $700 yeah so that's what it is we knew was going to happen right oh you know what I'm sorry Eric I just real I wasn't sharing hang on a second oh oh yeah I wasn't sharing and we could see you yeah okay there we go so sorry what was your question well we knew it was going to go up right I mean because because yeah so that's not unexpected no it's not it's not unexpected at all so but that's that's what it is for this year um any questions about ACO budget um next one is tree Warden and there's literally no change in that I talked with uh Walter and he didn't see a need to go up the only reason for the extra money in there um the advertising is in case there has to be a shade tree hearing and that kind of thing so does Walter have a successor in mind um he's getting back about what his term is up um there was some confusion at on for my part because I had a letter that appointed him but he's that position's been elected since the 90s yeah so his term is up June 30th of 26 so he'll be letting us know very shortly he's going to come off that okay so what's the next one Council on Aging yes um Council on Aging which if you recall last year went up to 3,000 um they level funded it for this year so there's no change um don't know does anybody have any questions on that okay uh 610 Library so every year I speak with Chris Eugen Moore about what's the amount that they need to put in there um to keep their accreditation but it it's it can't be too high anyway it's this formula they they use so it's only going up by $75 this year is that right they didn't expend any money to no no no no I haven't filled that in yet sorry yeah we we've been a little behind on the reports and I just didn't have a chance to get into Michael's numbers oh okay yeah no no and actually I don't know if it's helpful or not to even have the expended in here that's how much that's how I inherited those spreadsheets if you want them in there that's fine and I can go back I like I like having it be good so so I should keep up to date with it yeah I mean Mike Mike has been good about sending the uh you know monthly Revenue expens right but we we had a lapse of about four or five months that he wasn't sending them and then we just got them and so I've been catching up so I'll I'll make sure to catch up on one of the next versions um so that was that one so then we've got forest and trails and that one was also level funded um and there really isn't anything in there that's delineated in terms of what they're spending on it's just their budget like there's no line item per se so any questions about that one and then the last one is also level funded and it's the historical commission me your total says 500 uh I don't know who Chris penny is so I'm going to admit him and we'll see what [Music] happens so anyway your your total mismatches oh sorry I'm sorry they must have asked for an increase of one I'm I'm 100 yeah sorry I I was just assuming it was level funded yep yep sorry and I I'll have to go back and see in my emails so what it went up it went up to yeah 500 from 400 let me see I apologize for not see where that is he is a res great okay so that's everything that's it that's what's on me for tonight yep I'm just looking to see here if I can nothing from person Al um that one I I took it off because I had it on the budget um twice and so it's going to be later on in the I had it on the schedule twice that but any so well that looks good take that so next week is police and fire and then the week after that is the whole slew of the ones that yeah I'm in charge of yeah so in two weeks it'll be a much bigger one okay um so great let's go Chris can you mute um I can try okay just we hearing some background noise sorry okay maybe I should I'll go back to public comments later sure yeah great thank you appreciate it St yes thank you okay we'll go back to new business second item on new businesses discussion and vote to sign fog request support letter for mem the um Mass Save Municipal energy manager grant program um any questions on what an mm does you know it's about emissions um um reducing energy use uh and helping us do reporting for the green communities to keep us in compliance which is huge for us Green community program we would not have been back in compliance if it hadn't been for the so so is this is this an existing position no and this is for a three-year position the fog yeah so so the grant would fund this position for three years and then at what point would the participating towns I mean is it that was my question was there an anticipation that we're going to continue funding this position and that our fog assessment might go up if this becomes U institutionalized we find another Grant yeah I have I have not heard that I have not heard that but that's something for us to keep in mind but this is just to support U part-time I mean this this is like a temporary position for the furog that we're in support of right and this is just to show that we're in support of their app applying to be able to receive this grant yeah right okay it's basically it's a letter of support it's not contract okay yeah I'll make a motion we no I'm I'll second that I'm in favor of it I just I do like ultimately I do have questions about like the long term yeah all in favor I I I agreed Erica once money comes into play we're going to definitely want if it's not costing us anything I'm I'm totally on board um okay we'll move on to the the third item which is discussion and vote to request three dlta projects from the furog this was part of of the MVB discussion um that we had earlier in the week actually I'm sorry last week um so Erica did you get that attachment should say dlta 202 yeah I have that yes yes to I'm just trying to see one two yeah okay yeah so it's for three it would be the second um item which is FEMA flood plane map changes the third item Hazard mitigation plan update and then um the last item you'll see is the river Corridor management all very applicable to us y uh so again it's just basically a almost like a letter of support as well to say yes these are the three key uh items we want uh for C to focus on y all right I'll make a motion we uh request three dlta projects from the furog and vote to support that yep uh so for FEMA Hazard mitigation and uh River Corridor I'll second all in favor I I I unanimous excellent thank you I'll put that in tomorrow great and then again nothing to sign no one we do need to sign uh discussion and vote to appoint Amy Anderson on the Conway currents newsletter committee for a term ending uh June 30th of 2026 um I know Amy I will absolutely vouch for Amy and I will nominate her for this position on the newsletter committee all right I'll second all in favor I I I already signed it great I just have to say we're very excited she's already like hit the grand running and has an idea for a new column for the currents and has some one coming out in February yeah so awes very exciting and the last item on new business I'm sorry what was this oh this is for the mem yep yep so we do need sign I'm sorry okay [Music] do you want me to explain how this one came about for the oh yeah discussion and vote on allowing transfer station decals on personal care attendant vehicles from out of town barque will explain how this came up so there there's somebody in town who had requested that they didn't have a car available but they did have somebody who is helping out in their household because of a disability and wanted to know if this person could have a decal put on their vehicle to be able to take their trash cuz obviously they can't do it um so I confess I did say yes through the end of the rest of the year because it see and then I thought well you know what what I could have done is said you could get a one-day pass but then that would mean they'd have to get a one- day pass like every week and so what I wanted to do was have the board weigh in on what your thoughts are so this is a car that is registered in another town that now has a Conway sticker on it at least through June 30th so I wanted some advice in whatever however you want to deal with this going forward they have more like a placard like they could put it up or take it down like not a sticker like some other form of sticker so we designate the difference yeah especially if if it's an organization and there's different people right yeah that's true it's a good idea we could do that one of the other things that we do because the only concern about that is not that I'm expecting anybody to do it but you can pick it up and put it on any vehicle then so the alternative that we've done with people who really cannot for whatever reason show have their vehicle identify them from any municipality is have them put it on the back of their vehicle registration and then they can just pull that out and show it but then that that's tied to the car right and what if they change PCA or something to me if you had a placard and it was registered to that Conway household they keep it in the house when the person comes to get their trash oh I see okay and then they take it okay when they go okay so it's not something that stays in the car they stays in the household I like that yeah like yeah y great good idea yeah it's a very good idea I love it is is it is this person in Conway do they they have a a sticker for their own car um it is somebody yes that we know lives in Conway and yes yes so maybe this H the the helper could just use their car that yes funny about that that that wasn't possible in this circumstance okay okay fair enough and and they're not getting they're just this is just for a decal not for stickers cuz the woman already has theti own stickers right correct right it's just yeah yeah so um and I don't think we're in a big rush on this but maybe what I could do if you all all support the idea of a placard is I could come up with some designs and I could come up with you know something they sign that says blah blah blah you know whatever y this should be a very small occurrent type of yeah I would think you to even let we do have an aging population true but we could even just let the attendants know hey here's the the list the list right we could we could yeah I hate to put more on them you know that's true to have to look at yeah yeah so well I mean either way they're going to see the sticker or they're going to see like a little you know blackard and they'll get to know the person so they'll know who yeah although like if you said if it's an agency and they keep changing right then they won't get to know the person so right yeah but then know that that person has a placard and in that case we couldn't put a list up because we wouldn't if the vehicle was changing right we wouldn't know what it was I really like the yeah but we would know that this one particular household has been issued right know right so it might be a little more work on the transfer station attendance if they have to keep that in mind I they're going to know they're going to yeah small town if there's an abuse not much so I we could probably still make the vote on the use it's just in what form so I'll just go ahead and make a motion to vote to allow uh transfer station decal in some type of form on a personal care attendant vehicle or otherwise uh registration or placard um from out of town second providing service to a con by President yes yeah uh as noted uh all in favor I I I excellent thank you so much for that idea all right we already passed it but since uh Chris joined a little late I'm going to go back to public comments if you have any public comments you would like to discuss and sorry I'm not sure if your name is Chris you just signed in as Chris muted if you're talking okay we can jump back if needed but we'll move on items not anticipated 48 hours in advance of the meeting there are none so let's go to Town Administrator updates um so I did get two updates from the clerk and the Town Clerk and the police department um Street listings have all been mailed and they're they're coming in boy there was quite a pile of them today and then she's also working on reminders for dog licensing and starting the prep work for the annual caucus coming up God M um so that was Lor's up I forgot sorry chief chief Bates um says that there is now fibrillator in each Cruiser great and they also have a new handheld radar unit that was paid for through a Massachusetts Road Safety Grant I saw him last week uh Chris was up there as well and he was just Distributing the defibrillators and they're all alike so if you know how to use one defibrillator in town you know how to use every defibrillator in town I've actually been talking with him about maybe getting some signs made up that just you know say AED when I've seen him before in schools they've even had like a quick start guide or whatever right I don't remember if these are talking ones if they talk to you when you open it up I haven't actually they usually are yeah the new ones us are so but just so we're you know when we put them up it's a matter I think just just having the signage yeah so um oh actually on that note I should I suppose I should mention that we're talking about in the town offices you know sometimes there's we're not in the office but the doors open because uh police officers upstairs people can just wander in throughout the whole building so we're talking about that when you walk in the front door and the door right there on the left that you have to open about putting some kind of lock on that that of course would keep people from being able to get their mails so what we were talking about is moving the whole thing that has all the mailboxes well first taking the door down that goes up the staircase to the police station putting the whole unit that has all the mailboxes right there in the wall We R and I measured it and it'll fit so that anybody can walk in the door deal with their mail and walk back out again and don't have to walk through the rest of the building building that's definitely security I so yeah so just to let you know that that's so we were thinking about putting the AED in that first entry way because obviously if it's locked inside it's not helping anybody Okay so until we move this whole thing until we get everything yes everything moved yes yep um and the what I'm working on right now is trying to get the amount of money for engineering for the shaft so that I know how much to ask for at town meeting and then and apply anyway is that a Ada issue yes yeah no I mean by moving the door and doing all that no okay no it shouldn't be because I mean you could well I'm not sure how it would be ada8 because you're actually removing a door that nobody even uses it always it's always open at the bottom of the stairs if the hallway that you're putting it in isn't wide enough with the door oh for them to turn around in a in a in a wheelchair I suppose that's possible we should measure it how do you even get in the chair anyway yeah the ramp you just can't get upstairs yeah you can't get upstairs you can't get up to what So Adam and I tomorrow are going to get a wheelchair from the basement and he's going to spin me around and see if it works no we'll we'll try it out and see if it cuz that's a good point making sure that they can do that yeah I just know when whatever workwise if we add something or the fire department has to say or just get cheap Baker to say sure you can do it yeah y That's probably quicker yep okay uh all right so Chris has gotten the security camera up at the transfer station yeah yep um and we can actually see live stream most see here yep the end here um so we'll be putting up some more official looking signs that say you're on 247 you know monitoring uh sustainability um the Committees divided up or divied up into four teams of two that are going to walk around town and just tag with yellow ribbons these trees that they think I'm sorry street lights that may be able to be considered for decommissioning Chris has already done almost all of this um but anyway so that'll be going on over the next couple of weeks and yeah so at school committee it came up that that we had wanted the sustainability committee to weigh in on the I forget the name of but the the smart system you put in the school to control all yeah yeah whatever yeah building management right because Deerfield got a grant to fund it and the actually that the that system will cost more than the boilers yeah I saw that in the C Capital item yeah yeah so we really do want a grant but we need it to come with the Assistance or guidance or support of the sustainability committee because that's what it's couched in okay I think they they may need to reach out to Shell probably Shelly or Bill Bill yeah [Music] get the money while there already gone um so they could check with the Deerfield energy committee and find out where they got the grant yep okay Shel knows where they are okay all righty okay so um we we had our first meeting to talk about the guy the new guide to Conway and it's really going well I'm very excited um and we'll be I'll be putting forth an article for printing and postage um we had a large meeting with all the all the people whove been involved in MVP all along about um what we'd already put in an expression of interest um about potential for lowering three different flood planes along the South River and we discussed that with uh MVP because they're allowed to talk to us until the RF far comes out um to get some feedback about it and it kind of got winnowed down it sort of felt like that might be a little bit too much to take on um and this next phase would just be design and permitting it wouldn't be construction so we're going to have another meeting next week that we just set up just kind of talk again about the feedback that we got and kind of solidify the idea of what we're going to apply for um I think I've already told you well I I have a five-year Financial forecast that I'm working on it's almost done it's one of the DLS spreadsheets that you just pop in the numbers but I need some guidance from them because I can't figure out how to I did it last year and it's a fiveyear look back and a 5year look forward and there's no way to change the fiscal years that I see to move it to so yeah so I'm asking for help on that them um and then we're also talking about the potential to and we'd be getting help from the federal funds infrastructure office to apply for this protect Grant and and furog um to apply for a protect Grant to take care of the three different areas along shelburn Falls Road where the embankments you know under threat from the South River so and those things take a while but um everybody seems on board the furog and GZA sent us some designs that they had done before through the M Trails Woodland partnership program and you know so but that's do it in February so we have a very short turnaround time for that yeah so that'll be a big project going forward and then I didn't put it on here but Ron and I will be finalizing the information to send back to the state about the mass Works Grant um because he has to develop a pretty detailed involved timeline and budget and it took us a while because it's one of those things where you go online we had to be together because I couldn't even print it out properly you know it was just for him to look at and see and he's the one who had to do it and I had to sign in and anyway he has it now so we should be getting that done um when I get back next week first thing okay and that's that well thank you very much uh next item select board member comments or concerns Erica none at the moment good none here either well I did I question we got a notice about somebody having an unsafe barn or something yes is that a common like I didn't know how do people does somebody make a complaint wasn't that because it was along the well that was that was through the furog building department so they even notice somebody's baring well you know sometimes they just drive around and they they know you know I don't I don't know I don't don't know how they particularly found out about it but but the town I believe just has to be notified when they're talking with them so that was just a just like a heads up to us that the owner had been notified oh the owner's okay yeah cuz I see like barns that are like everywhere yeah I mean if you go like weightly Road and you when you cross into uh oh the one on the right yeah I mean I'm like waiting for a strong wind right by the mulch place right I mean that's just like sticks and then there's one on is it River Road and Deerfield that is Al it's like either has fallen off but The Middle's there and they those all look super dangerous cuz they're very close to residential things and the road and the road right yeah that one in particular in weight is very close to the road yeah so I was kind of surprised cuz I mean I don't I can't I don't know this barn on the top of my head but I was just surprised that they noticed that so somebody calling in right cuz I actually would think that that could affect somebody's homeowners mhm yeah that's true that's true so anyway all right learn something new every day no mail no announcements next meeting is January 27th um anything else anybody okay I will make a motion to adjourn second all in favor all all thank you