Conway Select Board Approves Artist License, Warrant Articles, and 3 Percent Employee Raise

WHATELY -- April 21, 2026, The Conway Select Board unanimously approved a copyright license agreement, a new highway hire, and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for town employees at its April 21 joint meeting with the Finance Committee. The board approved a license agreement with artist Amy Anderson limiting the town's use of her right-to-farm sign artwork solely to those physical signs, after members debated the precedent of an artist asserting copyright over work understood to have been donated. Robert Brownlee was hired as a highway department equipment operator at $32.96 per hour. The Finance Committee voted to recommend a 3 percent COLA for fiscal year 2027, with one member noting that after health insurance cost increases, employees in Proposition 2 1/2 towns "won't even see a difference in their paychecks." The joint session also closed the annual town meeting warrant, which includes a $150,000 highway stabilization appropriation, a $30,000 school flooring article, and a streetlight conversion projected to drop annual lighting costs from roughly $11,000 to under $2,000, a payback period of about two years.