We'll move up to uh meeting minutes. Vote to approve minutes of June 30th. I look them over. They are as good as always. See? I'll make a motion to vote for the minutes. Second. All in favor.
I I says I [Music] [Applause] we'll move on to meetings attended by select board members Erica. Um just apart from regular meetings with
uh Barrenique and the uh consultants that we had looking at town organization and finances um nothing of note. Okay. I did not have any myself. Uh Elaine is discussing with the police
department right now. So we can come back to her. No public comments. I don't want to finish business. Back to new business. Second uh item is discussion and vote on the approval for the fiscal year 26 fire department roster. On that roster we
have as the chief as always, Mr. Robert Baker. DPT stands for deputy. Deputy deputy chief. Ah, there we go. It's Chris Herman. Captain is Joseph Param.
Captain Nicholas Vanderheld. Lieutenant Bob Armstrong. And Lieutenant Jima Vanderheld. So, all names that we already know. Real quick, did you have any meetings?
No meetings. I've been on vacation. Okay. We're discussing the um fire department roster. Looks to be the same roster. So, this is going to be a vote as well. It's an excellent roster and I absolutely appreciate all of these
people um serving in this capacity. We need more. Agreed. We need more. Yes. Um, but yeah, and I just would like to point out that the names of most of these people, these are people who have served for years on our town Volunteer Fire Department, and that
does not go unnoticed. I'll make a motion to vote for the fiscal year 26 fire department roster as read. Second. All in favor? I I I. All right. Discussion and vote on
required uniform for TSAs at the transfer station. Um there was a mail that came in about a certain shirt, right? Yes. Yeah. We had an email and um just
some background that the board did approve a number of years back to put in the budget a clothing allowance, a uniform allowance. So everybody has clothing that's all safety colored and everything. So, it shouldn't really be.
When's the last time that clothing allowance has been increased? Um, it hasn't been increased, but everybody's been buying things and we're just in the beginning of the fiscal year. So, I'm ready to tell everybody that they can go and purchase whatever
they need. They don't like one shirt I have. Oh, no, no, no, no. They get Yeah. I so I I the issue the other background here is that um the question is whether or not it's
appropriate for town employees to wear t-shirts with political slogans or something that might be offensive to town residents. Um it is. Right. So, it seems like, you know, we
we provide a clothing allowance for the um transfer station attendance and it seems like the simplest way on both sides for all people who opinions about this is to just to enforce the policy that like you have a clothing allowance,
wear the shirts that we buy from the um what's that place called in Greenfield? The outlet store. All right. I was going to say the uniform store, but essentially I mean that's kind of like, you know, baseline. I I like I'm not like I work for the state. There are certain things I'm not
allowed to like do at my work because they work for the state. So it seems pretty um like a simple solution here to say that, you know, so that the town pays for it. I have the same thing with my company and I wanted
to kind of um offer a suggestion uh that we do with my my field texts that work for me. Um it so the shirt that's in discussion wasn't a political shirt. It was they I I see how it could have been
seen as that. But I think the easiest way around it is to state that unless it is a shirt that uh has something about the Conway transport station on it, they shouldn't be wearing any shirts with any
logos or any words on the shirt. Um especially if it is an, you know, an advertisement for either a company or or anything really. Anything. So it shouldn't be advertising anything. That's what I would say is like no logos.
Well, they could just wear the I mean, they're supposed to be wearing safety colors anyway. We provide safety t-shirts. So, the only thing I can see is if like they get something spilled on them up there during the shift, they or they're sweating too much or whatever that they might need to change.
Yeah. And that's the question I had too is that there's plenty of situations where they're going to get stuff spilled on them or the shirts are going to rip. Right. Right. So, what happens then? they get more shirts. I mean, they just have to let me know. They haven't
even if they're already maxed out on the budget for the clothing allowance. Oh, I can I can juggle things around. Okay. But people have to talk to me and tell me what's going on. I would like Tim to to tell the TAs this information. I agree. And you know, the thing is in the summertime it's it's kind of more of
an issue of just the t-shirts. They have sweatshirts for the fall that are safety and then they have winter jackets. So there shouldn't be any. It's really just going to be in the summertime that this would be an issue. So we can get plenty of t-shirts for them. Is everybody okay? Cuz I'm still the uh
liaison for the select board for the T the transfer station. I I'm going to talk to Tim about this, but is everybody okay with me saying, "Hey, listen. You they need to wear the uniforms that were purchased for the transfer station if there's aren't available for whatever
reason. It has to be no logo, no words. Yeah. Yeah. I even say keep a couple up there. Yeah. Stashed. Yeah. In case. Yeah. Go. I know that like it's hot in the summer time. People want to cut their like
sleeves off t-shirts. Totally fine with that as well. But I but I agree, Chris, that like you know, no logo, no words. We're not advertising anything. We're just there to unless it's an American flag. We're there to provide a service to the town. All right. So, does this actually need a
vote because we're not really changing anything, right? There's no policy to change. I don't know that we actually need to vote. I think it's just it's but but I think it's good to have the public conversation. Back to the person. I I talked to the person. Oh, did you? Yeah.
I I I don't know. If this is your policy, then that's why I put down vote because then that would be your policy. Well, hasn't Hasn't it always been the policy that like How about I do this? I thought it was policy, but I don't know if they had uniforms before or not. I will make a motion to reinforce the
policy on the attire for the transfer station attendance that that attire should be um Conway issued. Yeah, Conway issued uh attire that was purchased for the transfer station attendance. The only
um caveat to that is if something happens that uh whatever uniform is worn should not have logos or words on the uniform. Sounds good. I'll second that. All in favor? I I
I. All right. Last item on new business is vote to appoint Brian Allen to the Open Space Committee for a term ending June 30th of 2028. I don't know Brian Allen. Who's Brian Allen?
Does anybody know Bri Brian Allen? No, but the fact that he's willing to um serve on the Open Space Committee gives me a lot of faith in him. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, we'll take who I think this is one of those that was supposed to be done in June. Oh, really? Somehow,
right? He was appointed before, but it was only for like a a month, I think, and then we just forgot to stick him in for the reappoint. So, Got it. All right. He came in like the end of April and then he was supposed to be rebounded. Got it. Uh I'll make a motion to vote to
appoint Brian Allen to open space committee for a term ending June 30th, 2028. I'll second. All in favor? I I Erica, this one you have to sign when you get back, right? Chair. Yep. All right. Items on anticipated 48 hours
in advance is vote to sign a construction contract that Baronique sent us right before the meeting. I did look that over. I bruised his long contract, but it is a boilerplate contract. Yep. And we haven't he voted on this, right? You you voted to accept the low bid. Um
I just got this back this afternoon from town council, sent it to the contractor who immediately signed it and turned it around. So I was like, well, let's let's get this done. Yeah. When does it start? Anytime. I mean, the contract says, you know, start date July 15th. So this is
kind of perfect. Okay, he has to get us on the schedule. I'll make a motion to sign the contract Taylor Davis Landscape uh company to do the repaving at the transfer station. I'll second. Second.
All in favor? I I and get there eventually. This is also an Erica signature. Yeah. you know, I mean, I don't see any reason why Erica couldn't give you
authority right now to sign both of those, right? I don't see why not. Um, yeah, if that's something I mean, I I'm I I will be back in town on Friday night so I could sign stuff Saturday morning, but if it's like if it's urgent, then I want to get this guy
going. I'd like to send it to him right away if that's okay. Do we have to vote on that to give me the authority to let Chris sign? Might as well just to play it safe. Yeah. So um that we let uh Chris Waldo, who is the deputy chair, sign the
contract for um the uh yeah to sign this contract. Sorry. Second. Uh all in favor? I I Do you want me to do the same for Brian Allen?
Um yeah, I think so. Thank you. Uh, all in favor? I I [Applause] uh moving on. TA updates. Very neat. Yeah. Um well, so just going in order,
um we've gotten a number of applications for the final CDL position at the highway department, which is great, and also one for his park. So we'll be interviewing next week, which is exciting. Very exciting. We really need that. I know. It really is. Um Ron's update
about the public safety building is the electrical and plumbing work by the tech school has been finished. Insulation is almost done. The sheetrock is going up. If you've driven by, you probably noticed some of the outside failing or siding going up. Windows are in. Interior doors should be done soon. Um
the tech school will be working on the heating next semester. um unless unless something happens and they need to get the heat going sooner and then Ken might come in and get it going. Um and then two of the bays were
poured a while back and they're now set and Ron's going to be um doing the deconstruction of the other ones for pouring in September for the last three days. So, it's just so exciting to see all that moving along. I drove by Sunday. Yeah. So, I can't give it I can't give
you a you know, it'll be finished by whenever because it's all dependent on the tech school and their schedule. But, um and then um Ron will be putting out getting some quotes for the catch basins, the 16 catch basins that have to go up in the PL area. And once that's
done, I think he'll have all this material secured and we can start scheduling the work there. So, I know how this rain was up there. That's exciting. Speaking of which, we should probably schedule a select board meeting to discuss with the residents of Delaware when that's going to happen.
Okay? Because there are going to be parking issues on that street that we're going to need to talk with them about. Um because of the way that I have ideas. Sorry. I have ideas about parking on a Delar.
Yeah. Oh, great. Okay. All right. Um, we are just now working with Source Pass. They're sort of getting into all of our computers and getting us on boarded, which is really exciting. So, in the next couple weeks, we should be having everybody be able to access Quest
and get into SharePoint and everything's going to be in SharePoint now, and it's all going to be in the cloud. And I'm sort of waiting to see because, as you know, I'm not the biggest techie anymore. So, I'm just kind of going, yes. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah, but I
can't wait good for it to be done. Um I'm still awaiting award information on three different grants, but we did get um eight. So with an RFP, you have two sections to the RFP. There's the non non-pric proposals and the price
proposals. And you have all this evaluative criteria that you go through. This is so that the town can really evaluate and see which company would be the best fit. And so first you look at all the non-pric proposals and you rank them
and then you look at the price and kind of put it together that way. So that's what I'm I'll be working on tomorrow with Paul Mlache III from Ashefield um to do the whole spreadsheet and put this all together and have us start to do um evaluating those. But there's eight of
them which was nice to see. Um, about the computer changeover, do we need to do anything at this moment or we're just No, the main thing right now is getting everybody's actual like I'm going to have to get this laptop um on boarded so that everything's going up to the cloud
instead of Yeah. I won't be zpning in. It's all going to be um Yeah. Yeah. So, um but everybody I think is going to need to be you're going to need to talk with him about your emails and stuff. So, I'm just waiting for them to say, "Okay, for right now, this is just the
folks with the actual computers about the hard hardware." Um, transfer station. We the transfer station today. Very exciting. I don't know if you've noticed that the Conway Mall, the old one's gone. Yeah. And all the wood where you're going to be parking for the Conway Mall is all
gone. So, the parking spots are open. So, we met up there today and originally the quote they gave me um included a certain amount of different grade grades of of sizes of rock to um
be the foundation for the shed. And Ron was going to do fill in the back because it kind of slopes off very quickly. But for $800 more, they'll take care of the fill as well. And I said, "Yeah, absolutely. We'll we'll do that. take
that off Ron's plate because he's got so much going on and it just be nicer. So, I'm hoping that gets scheduled within the next week or two and as soon as they have the site prepped, all they have to do is bring the building up and they're done. So, Wow. Yeah, that's awesome. I know. You know what I didn't think about with
the contract we just signed is remember Ron was supposed to make some parking spaces. Yeah, that's why I said the wood. He moved the wood. So, you park there now. Yeah. On the road going out. Yes. Yeah. He's moved all that wood. It's all gone. Yeah. But is it going to be paved over?
Uh, it's not being paid by this company. I don't know if it's going to be paved or not this year, but you can park there. I mean, there's room to park, right? And it's pretty hard back there. I'm not I don't think it's going to be like a mud, so I think it should be okay. Okay. But we can we can
The shed will need to be hooked up, right? Electric and Yes. Yes. And so the electrical box is right in front and Ron worked with Peter Martin on that. So, and then also we'll need to once the shed is in place,
um, hire somebody to create the room in the back, the sorting room where the volunteers will be, which will need to be both, you know, heated and cooled. Okay. So, yeah. So, that it'll it'll still be a work in progress. And then we, you know, it's just going to be a a shed.
Yeah. So people are going to have to figure out, okay, do you want shelving here? How, you know, what do you want where, right? But first, um, and oh, actually, I need to get that done for tomorrow. First, in my column for the currents, I'm going to be asking for more volunteers and for somebody to be
the sort of head organizer of all the volunteers because I won't have time to schedule everybody. Oh, yeah. And you know, it's my understanding, we already talked about this, that if there's not a volunteer there, the shed's not open because otherwise it will just Yep. Yeah. So, I'm going to put on
This seems like a great opportunity for the senior tax uh write off work program. Yeah. Get a senior who's willing to Yeah. organize all the workers. That's Well, yeah. Organizing them. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, if somebody has tech skills, it would just be a Right. Right. organizing. Um anyway, so so hopefully that'll be going soon. And then um
as Erica mentioned, we had the um Division of Local Services people come out to do um the select board requested um a financial management review because it hadn't been done since 2012. So, they came up. They were great. They interviewed all of us in the back room.
Um, spent the whole day there. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what they put together for us. Excellent. Our draft audit came back. So, that should be um we should have the final for you all with the management letter soon. And then last thing, um, and actually I just spoke with Jim
Warner about this tonight was the national fitness campaign, which I think I've sent you guys a couple of emails about that. And it was interesting because I hadn't mentioned it to Jan until tonight and she said, "Well, you know, Parts and Wreck is looking into doing something like that." So, we'll see if you know if she likes that or if
or if there's something else that's a better fit. But that I just thought was interesting that they're already thinking about doing it. So, um and I'm hoping to hear from their town administrator. If you guys think of some questions that you want me to ask
the town administrator, um because he won't be back for a couple days, then I can about this fitness thing. Yeah. About the process and what Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd like to see it. The cost that was shown was far greater than the
product I thought that I saw. Yeah. So I just feel that money could be used in a similar way fashion and a better way that is more accustomed to our town than just hard pack content. It's all the town employees.
I'm sorry. It's for the town employees. Oh no. And it comes with a mobile app. So like it's um you can either get the double size which is 72 ft by 36 and one side you can do yoga or step whatever you want on one side and the other side is kind of their signature thing where
it's a 7 minute workout and you go around just different stations. You spend 45 seconds on one then 15 second break and you go to the next one blah blah blah blah blah and you get serving training. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um so but it it is the grant is not a
lot of money and it is expensive. So, it was like $30 to $50,000 or $36,000 for the grant. And the total cost, and I'm assuming this is depending on whether you get the half size or the, you know, the double size is anywhere from 150 to
270, I think it was, something like that. So, and I don't mean to be mean, but it's a prison yard. It looks like a prison yard. Okay. But there is one up and running in Lee. So, yeah, I I would like to see that. I like
I I'll go out there with you or go out there by myself to go see it to see if it's it's just that money. Yeah, that's a lot of money. We're a smaller town and we can um we can apply. There's no uh
obligation to apply and find out if you're given the grant. And the reason they chose us was because we're kind of in a desert for, you know, there's one that's going to be built in Williamstown. There's a whole mess in Albany. There's a bunch in the eastern part of the state and they were looking to put something
northwest. So, which also tells me like what a con. Mhm. You know, why not East? I don't know. Or Greenfield. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. That's that was the question I asked. You know,
it could be that they even Sunderland. It could be that they've reached out to a lot of these places and, you know, I got back to them. I don't know. That's true. Okay. I Yeah, red flag for waving anyway. So, but that's it. That's That's
what I think. Thank you. Still hasn't slowed down really. Not at all. Uh, select for member comments, concerns. Erica, I've got none at the moment. Elaine,
nope. Been on vacation, so I'm just readjusting. But I was wondering how the water did today. It was coming down. It was hard. It was coming down hard. You were correct. Um, none for me as well. The male uh
I want to say AAM like AAM's razor, but yeah, I I mean I I was wondering, can we I I would like to table this till our next meeting. Sure. Because I feel pretty strongly about this and I would love to send a letter of support, but I really want to like I don't want it to be a boilerplate letter
of support. I want to rewrite the suggested letter that they sent. Um, yeah. So, I'm with you on this. It's a topic that is I think that needs to be discussed at length and will affect our town.
Yeah. Just for anyone who might be watching, it's about um large uh energy companies coming into small towns to put in battery storage facilities and for-profit energy companies. Yeah.
That is a major distinction you need to to state this forprofit. Yeah. Coming into small towns um that really like rural small towns that really don't uh have the capacity to support this kind of
massive uh infrastructure. I agree. Oh, I I was just going to remind everybody that I will be on vacation on the 28th. So I hopefully is it a station or you going somewhere fun? My granddaughter's coming.
Oh, nice. You better. So um so that is normally we've been having that meeting because it's a warrant week, but um do we I mean I'm fine with not scheduling a meeting that Monday if we actually don't have
anything on the agenda. You know what? I won't be here. I thought the two of us were out. Yeah. So maybe we push that. I I mean, yeah, we might want to push that. Yeah. Can we cancel that meeting then? Sure.
I think that's fine. I mean, we were only going to meet because we thought we had to vote and sign on the warrants, but since we don't, um, it's just that we have the capacity as the select board to sign warrants every week. Our next meeting then, if we cancel on
the 28th, our next one will be the 11th of August. Is that right? Yeah. Sounds like Well, it's up to you though. August. Yeah. I'm actually I will not be around the 11th of August. That's one of the dates that I'm not going to be here. So, maybe we can editly schedule it for the week after
or the week before. Yeah. Yeah. Since we're skipping I mean, if if we don't I mean, August 4th. August 4th. Yeah. I think that sounds if if we don't I don't want to meet just, you know, for the sake of meeting if Right. Let's
let's tentatively schedule something. Yes. Um but it doesn't have to be that important week. No, we know that next meeting is tentatively scheduled for August 4th. Uh Erica, anything else? No, I'm on vacation.
Enjoy. Elaine, anything else? I will make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Second. I I thank you. Enjoy, Erica. Thank you.