CONWAY — Residents will consider several Highway Department purchases, funding an addition to the Public Safety Complex and several bylaw changes at Saturday’s Annual Town Meeting.

The meeting will be held in Conway Grammar School’s gymnasium at 10 a.m.

First among the major articles is Article 6, which asks residents to appropriate $311,000 to construct an addition to the Public Safety Complex using leftover money from the town’s Highway Department building project. Article 7 also asks residents to transfer $84,695 from a sale of public land revenue fund. If approved, these two appropriations will be supplemented with $390,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for a total of approximately $786,000, which the town estimates will be enough to complete the addition without taking out a loan.

“The key thing is the no new borrowing,” Selectboard Chair Philip Kantor said at a May Selectboard meeting. “The ARPA money we saved and all those ideas that everybody had to spend it, we held onto with a white-knuckle death grip and now we have it to spend on this.”

The addition would include individual offices for the Fire, Police and Ambulance departments, along with space for a shower, a laundry room and a conference room. The building currently holds the Fire and Ambulance departments’ equipment in quarters so tight that fire engines touch bumper to bumper.

Four Highway Department purchases will be asked of residents in Articles 9 through 12, with the department requesting a compact loader, a four-door plow truck, a used 60- to 70-foot boom lift and an 18-inch wood chipper, alongside a chipper box.

“The compact loader and the pickup are the frontline stuff I’ve always needed,” Highway Superintendent Ron Sweet said at a joint Selectboard-Finance Committee meeting in April. “The other stuff, the reason we’re asking for it is because they are things now being asked of the Highway Department.”

Sweet currently rents the chipper and boom lift, and he said buying the equipment will save the town money over the years and will expedite responses to weather events.

“You can’t predict when a tree is going to fall. Weather changes everything; weather is our business,” Sweet said. “It’s a huge chunk of our money we’re giving to somebody else. I don’t agree with the theory that renting is the way to go.”

At the end of the warrant, residents will consider several proposed bylaw changes.

Article 30 proposes striking language from the town’s bylaw prohibiting members of the Personnel Committee from being elected officials, as well as striking a requirement that former town employees must wait three years from the end of their employment to serve in the position. This change, according to an information sheet compiled by residents, will help revive the Personnel Committee by easing membership requirements.

Article 31 will ask residents to adopt the so-called Mullin Rule, which allows board members to miss one meeting of a hearing and still vote if the hearing is continued, as long as they review all testimony, evidence and minutes of the missed meeting. Article 32 proposes an amendment to the town bylaws allowing boards and committees, such as the Conservation Commission, to charge applicants for consulting work if the town needs outside expertise during an application process.

Wrapping up bylaw amendments, the Planning Board has submitted Articles 33 and 34, which would loosen ownership requirements on marijuana permits by not voiding them when ownership changes by more than 10% and updating cellular bylaws to fit the modern era.

The proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2024 is $6.86 million, which is 4.21%, or $288,842, higher than the current year’s figures.

Other articles on the 35-article warrant include:

■Appropriating $100,000 for the Fire Truck Stabilization Fund to continue saving for a rescue pump truck, which is expected to be bought in 2028.

■Appropriating $65,270 to pay the paving note for Shelburne Falls Road.

■Creating a Capital Stabilization Fund for Frontier Regional School. Conway is the last town of the four members of the Frontier and Union 30 Regional school districts that needs to vote on the fund.

The full Annual Town Meeting warrant can be found at bit.ly/3OJ1MFO. The voters’ guide is available at bit.ly/3N62Sds.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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