Conway village officials hail dissolution, with cake and a warning

Conway Village Fire District Chair Steve Bamsey cuts a cake at the last Conway Village Fire District meeting last Thursday. The district dissolves into the town Jan. 1.

Conway Village Fire District Chair Steve Bamsey cuts a cake at the last Conway Village Fire District meeting last Thursday. The district dissolves into the town Jan. 1. DAYMOND STEER—Conway Daily Sun staff photo

By DAYMOND STEER

Conway Daily Sun

Published: 12-26-2024 11:17 AM

Conway Village officials expressed optimism about the village’s future at their final meeting before the 118-year-old district dissolves Jan. 1.

It ended with a celebratory cake.

However, one commissioner urged the public to be vigilant in protecting the high-quality services the village has historically enjoyed.

In March 2023, village residents voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Conway Village Fire District by 2025, a year later than originally proposed by commissioners. About 60 people attended the 2023 annual meeting.

The town of Conway will assume responsibility for running both the village fire and water/sewer departments. This means the fire department will be run by the five-member Conway Board of Selectmen rather than the current three precinct commissioners. Conway Village will also turn over its water/sewer department and Pequawket Park.

On Dec. 19, the Conway Village commissioners met for the last time. The board consists of Steve Bamsey, Mike DiGregorio and Etienne Vallee.

The commissiners and staff did a bit of business to wrap up the district’s affairs, took some questions and pondered the future.

With the commissioners were Fire Chief Phil Remington, bookkeeper Amy Snow and Superintendent Bruno Vallieres. About a dozen members of the public attended, plus the Conway selectmen minus Ryan Shepard.

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Bamsey thanked the voters for their support over the years. “We put together, I feel, a very qualified professional department, not only for fire, rescue, ambulance, but also for our Washington Sewer District,” said Bamsey.

“Sometimes those were painful votes because they were expensive. ... But in the end, I feel that the position of our district, the capital that we have, the assets that we have, we are in a very, very good position.”

Reasons for dissolution include the fact that the fire/rescue department doesn’t have as many volunteers as it once did. Meanwhile, the call volume had escalated. Now, the district handles around 1,400 calls per year.

Remington said the dissolution will save around $100,000 just in terms of insurance costs. Vallieres and Snow said giving up the water/sewer department will save about the same amount.

“I think it’s going to be really important going forward to make sure that the selectmen, as well as the budget committee, keep up that high quality service that that we all enjoy here in the precinct,” said DiGregorio, adding he is concerned about comments budgeteers made recently when members saw the fire budget.

“So, it’s up to you guys (in the public) to be diligent with the budget committee and make sure that you are vocal and expect them to support the fire department. Go to those meetings, make sure you tell them that you want high-quality fire and rescue services,” DiGregorio said.

Vallieres said he’s excited that the former district’s customers will see their water and sewer rates decrease as a result of the dissolution.

The lower rates will kick in the second quarter, officials said.

Vallieres also said a $700,000 grant funded project to prevent groundwater from getting into the sewer pipes was completed Friday. The sewer pipes are connected to a treatment plant in North Conway.

DiGregorio said the benefit of the project will be apparent this spring when the water table rises.

“We got to reline a lot of pipe before it failed,” said Vallieres.

In response to a question from an attendee, Snow said the only thing about billing that would change is that the bill will be from Town of Conway Water/Sewer instead of from the district.

State Rep. Tom Buco (D-Conway), a former Conway Village Fire District commissioner, recalled spending 13 years chasing state funding for village infrastructure projects. 

Longtime moderator Doug Burnell said he enjoyed helming the district meetings because they were done in the old town meeting style rather than SB 2. He said the officials who made the dissolution happen were “courageous.”

Remington expressed confidence about the turnover.

“I think we’ve checked every box that we can think of. I’m sure something will pop up, but it shouldn’t be anything that we can’t handle,” said Remington, adding that countless hours of meetings have been spent on the turnover.

“I think we’re going into this in a good spot. We have a full staff. They’re highly trained and capable firefighters and EMS providers. We’re all excited, feeling a little nostalgic this last couple weeks, but we’ll still be here Jan. 1, doing our job. So we want to thank the commissioners.

“It was a crazy year to take over as the chief,” he added, referencing the fact that longtime Fire Chief Steve Solomon moved out of town in January after 16 years with the department.

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