6:00 p.m. Call Meeting to Order, Review Agenda, Review Minutes: 2/19/24
6:15 p.m. FY 2025 Budget Planning  (FinCom  requested to wait until next week for mtg).
Went over the draft budget worksheet.
Discussed building maintenance in relation to rising fuel costs.
Salaries: Expressed concern that some employees are below the median, many had not received COLA in some past years so there is a need to catch some people  up.
Items planned to be discussed with FinCom

• Highway Department Capital requests, Salt Shed, Building Costs, Employee Salaries

Other Business
MTRSD Agreement Articles & possible meeting

•  SB indicated that we can't set a meeting until we have answers to our questions. Budge Litchfield indicated this was passed on to  the district.

Highway Department--summer work schedule

• A four 10-hour-day schedule as was done in the past was discussed.
• Two employees preferred the five 8-hour day schedule and one preferred the four 10-hour-day.  Jeff Johnston felt they could accommodate both with a hybrid schedule.
• Jeff Johnston felt they would be able to have a hybrid schedule meet the Town's needs.
• The SB agreed to try the hybrid arrangement.

CEC Revised Agreement—revision to add PFAS testing, vote possible [Commission for Environmental Cooperation]   It will be an increase to the Town budget of $1150.
HilltownYouth Performing Arts—review of requests, vote possible

• Contract for $2400 a month was accepted by HYPA.

CommunityHall Windows Fundraising—update

• Over $8000 raised

Community Hall/Sawyer Hall —Mold Remediation update.

• Remediation is done, Tim to start painting.
• Tim has contacted a contractor to replace the Community Hall ceiling,
• Tim has started to move furniture from second floor down to the first.

Town Report Dedication 

• ​SB has 4 recommendations to review.
• They were a bit secretive about it trying to main a surprise.

Mail

• Items already covered

8:20 7:50 6:00 p.m. Call Meeting to Order, Review Agenda, Review Minutes: 3/12/24,
​Public Comment - none
6:05: Community Hall/Sawyer Hall—Mold Remediation update

• CH: All equipment removed; drywall partially done; ceiling above stage has been removed because of contamination, but did not replace as it was not part of the original quote; Tim to do painting; Tim to contact contractor to replace ceiling. SH: Ready for painting

6:12  Personnel Policy: review and update sections regarding drug testing, hiring requirements—vote

• Update needed to drug/alcohol section, needed terminology for marijuana related substances (cannabinoids)
• Need wording to ensure anyone driving town vehicles are fully licensed, whether Town employee, contractor, or volunteer.
• Extensive review found obsolete data.

6:21 Town Nurse Job Description: review changes—vote possible

• Job description as written not possible in an 8 hour weeks
• Hilma to rework and give to an RN for review.

7:55 Office Clerks: analysis of town and departmental clerical needs

• Role of a Boards clerk is different from Office Assistant.
• Boards Clerk - Now 8 hrs /wk. Currently working for BoH. SB would like to extend this to Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeal and make this 10 hrs/wk. (5 hrs for BoH, 1 hr for each of the others.)
• Office Assistant - Now 2 hrs/wk.  Robyn wants to push to 2 hrs/day. Current 2hrs/wk is not adequate.

8:13 FY 2025 Budget Planning: review of salaries & stipends, operating budget, capital requests

• Robyn feels everyone should be at least in the middle of their grade.
• Persons below middle are to be reviewed for possible adjustment above COLA. Several were identified. 
• Review of potential increase in building manager's hours.
• Robyn to produce numbers to make these adjustments.
• Robyn recused herself for Highway Dept. discussion. Increases were recommended by Sue and Elissa and the dept. was praised for the work accomplished despite reduced personnel.

Other Business:
8:58 MTRSD Agreement Articles & possible meeting

• March 27 is the best date for the district for a meeting. SB feels they can't schedule a meeting unless we have the numbers ahead of time.
• SB goal is to understand why the numbers from the MTRSD are different from Ken Rocke's.
• Heath is already paying for it's students and we need the numbers to understand the impact on Heath of the agreement amendment.

9:19 Letter to encourage increased rural aid for education

• Reviewed and accepted

9:21 Municipal Aggregation for Electric—vote possible

• Aggregation is a way to reduce electricity cost to Heath residents.
• Residents can opt not to join the aggregation.
• SB voted to accept 2 yr. contract through Colonial Power
• Workers we see around Town lately work for National Grid  are are doing a pole survey and many poles will be replaced. They are also building in redundancy. 

9:39 Hilltown Youth Performing Arts—review of requests, vote possible

• Jonathan sent a letter of thanks. Hilma to send the new lease with the option to sign or go with existing lease.

9:41 Community Hall Windows Fundraising—update

• Donation letter has gone out
• Have $7817 in donations five of which were online donations.

9:42 Animal Inspector--appointment,
["The primary duty of the Animal Inspector has recently become rabies control in the domestic animal population. Municipal Animal Inspectors are also responsible for barn inspections and may be called to assist with domestic animal disease quarantines in the event of an outbreak."
--https://www.mass.gov/info-details/municipal-animal-inspector-resources​ ]

• Amy Jarvis is the current inspector and wishes to continue in the position.
• She has completed the "Barn Book" which records  the number  and type of all farm animals at each location in the coverage area.
•  She does an inspection of the premises for state requirement for care—adequate food, water, and shelter.

9:51 2023 Town Report

• Draft introduction completed. SB voted to accept with corrections which Sue L will make.

9:53 Town Report Dedication

• Sb members to send recommendations to Hilma who will compile a list for review.

9:55 List of Items from Past SB Meetings to Consider

• How to make Town meeting easier on folks
• How to present the budget in a user friendly way
• How to shorten the time to go through the warrant. Hilma presented an alternative used by other towns.

Mail

• items were already discussed

Ambulance Discussion
Gary Ponce, Director of Colrain Ambulance Service spoke regarding the escalating costs of service which are becoming unsupportable.
He presented two options for charging:

• paying forward option is a charge of $400 which would guarantee 55 visits which would cost $22,000.
• the fee-for-every service charge would be $475 per call

 The preferred option seemed to be the  paying forward option and it eliminates administrative overhead,
Operating Budget

• The SB did a review of Article 3 items identifying what needs updating, what has raised questions
• Reviewed potential capital expenses
  • Salt Shed
  • Highway Dept  requests 
• Tipping charges: may need to increase the cost of dump sticker or the bag stickers to make up for increase cost of trash disposal.
• Looking at building expenses, Rowe late school bus cost

MTRSD agreement changes: need to have a meeting to discuss the amendment.

• Logistics of meeting location and who will chair needs to be clarified
• What are the goals of the Heath SB and FinCom?
• Heath needs to understand the future costs

Community Hall Fundraising Committee

• Reviewed the letter requesting donations to send out to the community
• SB voted to approve the letter
• Approx. $6900 collected to date

​Hilltown Youth Performing Arts lease

• ​Discussed a $24,000 lease but will require corrections to how the space is used.
• Shared areas need to be cleaned up after use which does not always happen.​