A NECSEMA Transparency Project
Public records obtained under G.L. c. 66, § 10
The substantive documents in Conway’s production, in the order the events occurred: what each one is, what it says, and a link to the file. The complete production is in the document library on the main Conway page.
Conway has roughly 1,900 residents. Its Board of Health uses the Franklin Regional Council of Governments as its health agent, and the town’s response to the records request attributes much of the work — and much of the missing correspondence — to that agency.
Nothing is characterized or interpreted. Where a document is ambiguous, it is quoted and left ambiguous.
9. Oral Nicotine Pouches (§G) 10. Ban blunt wraps (§K) YES
The earliest draft here, opening with a nineteen-item checklist of policy decisions to circle. In the extracted text items 1 through 8 and 10 through 17 each carry the word YES; item 9, the pouch provision, does not. The body nonetheless carries a pouch sentence: “Oral nicotine products can only be sold in adult-only retail tobacco stores.” Section D leaves both options bracketed — under twenty-one, or born on or after January 1, 2004 — and the effective date is blank.
Slightly different language since April. If you keep the language that you have, banning sales at establishments except adult-only retail tobacco stores, you will still have a ban on the pouches in Conway, which I think is what you want to do.
A blank-town template — the heading reads “Regulation of the [city/town] Board of Health” — annotated with fifteen numbered margin comments. In the extracted text “Conway” appears only in the comment quoted above. The comments address a second person as “you,” refer to “Cheryl” and the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, and note that “MAHB thinks Option 1 (separate fining structure) is a good way to go.” The commenter is nowhere named.
D. No Tobacco Sales to Persons Born on or after January 1, 2005. 1. No retailer or person shall sell or provide a tobacco product to a person born on or after January 1, 2005.
The checklist is gone — the word appears nowhere in this version — and so is the under-21 alternative in Section D. The birth date moves from January 1, 2004 to January 1, 2005, and the pouch sentence now matches the December model’s adult-only-store wording rather than the October draft’s. This text survives into the adopted regulation.
The Conway Board of Health will conduct a public hearing on Wednesday May 7, 2025 at 6:00pm… for the purpose of discussing the adoption of local Tobacco Control regulations in Conway.
The notice describes the subject only as “local Tobacco Control regulations.” The words “Nicotine-Free Generation,” “birthdate” and “pouches” do not appear. Readers are directed to the Town Clerk’s office for the proposed text.
Y. Effective Date: This regulation shall take effect on May 12, 2025.
Against the March 28 draft the visible changes are small: the title line corrected from “Town Conway” to “Town of Conway,” two bracketed passages unbracketed, the effective date filled in, and a trailing disclaimer and the “12.03.24” footer removed. The pouch section is word for word the same. One template placeholder survives: the signage provision still refers to signage “made available from the [city/town] Board of Health.”
Recent municipalities to enact NFG include Newton, Somerville, Hopkinton, Pelham, and Conway.
One of four monthly newsletters here, all sent from a Gmail address to itself with recipients not shown. This issue states that seventeen Massachusetts cities and towns have enacted the policy, covering more than 570,000 people; later issues raise the count to eighteen, then nineteen, then twenty-one. No author, address or organization appears on any of them.
Any correspondence with MAHB attorney was with FRCOG (Conway BOH’s Health Agent.)
Nine numbered answers. Items 1 through 4 each report no records: none from January 1, 2023; no correspondence with the fourteen named outside organizations and individuals; no contracts, agreements, memoranda or payment records; no grant applications or awards. The press release and legal notices are attributed to the Franklin Regional Council of Governments “as the Health Agent.” The Board chair “was not part of any discussion regarding tobacco regulations — she recused herself… this was not done in writing, but verbally,” and one unnamed member “was the point person of all communications with FRCOG.”
Thank you for submitting your MHOA Conference Session Evaluation for Nicotine-Free Generation (NFG): Progress, Policy, and Pathways Forward.
An attendee evaluation receipt for a session at the association’s 2025 conference, returned to a member of the regional agency that serves as Conway’s health agent. It does not say who presented, and does not name Conway.
No records from the period January 1, 2023 through September 2024, despite our request covering this entire timeframe. The earliest records produced are dated October 2024.
The letter lists five categories said to be absent and six specific records sought, among them the annotated December 3 model regulation and the legal notices published in the Greenfield Recorder. It asks for a written account of the search — which custodians, terms and dates — and a privilege log. The town replied that it withholds nothing.
I request all records from Conway, MA, including but not limited to emails, text messages, letters, memos, contracts, invoices, grant applications, meeting minutes, public notices and draft documents from January 1, 2023 to present
The same request, directed to the agency the town identified as holding the correspondence. It carries the identical category structure and list of named correspondents as the December request to the town. No response from the agency appears in this production.