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Town Meeting Day ballots will be shorter in some Vermont communities this year, thanks to unexpected spikes in school taxes. State lawmakers have given towns permission to postpone school budget votes until school boards have a chance to reconsider, and perhaps reduce, spending to hold down tax increases. In communities that go this route, residents will vote twice, deciding town-specific matters on March 5, then voting on their school budgets a few weeks later.
Nevertheless, the March 5 elections will settle a range of issues. In dozens of towns, residents will consider repairs to bridges and roads damaged in last July’s flood. In Sutton and Andover, they’ll vote on regulating short-term rentals. In Rutland, the question is whether to continue adding fluoride to city water.
Seven Days pored over more than 200 town meeting agendas; seven pending decisions, detailed below, stood out.
- Bridge Bond
- Small Town, Big Issue
- The Buzz
- Making the Grade
- Please, Mr. Postman
- Hanging Up the Spurs
- Seats to Fill
Bridge Bond
Anyone who has walked or biked between Winooski and Burlington has had to deal with the narrow sidewalks on the busy 96-year-old bridge connecting the two cities. On Town Meeting Day, Winooski residents will decide whether to approve a $4.6 million bond to pay the city’s share of replacing the deteriorating structure.
The bridge lacks traffic shoulders and has a six-foot sidewalk on both sides. In 2019, the Winooski and Burlington city councils approved a preliminary design of a new bridge with two-foot shoulders and 12-foot shared-use paths on either side, separated from the auto lanes by traffic barriers.
“The bridge is getting to the end of its useful design life,” Jon Rauscher, Winooski’s public works director, said of the span, which was constructed after the 1927 flood that destroyed 1,200 bridges across Vermont.
Not everyone loves the design. Some cyclists say the proposed bike lanes should be wider. Some modest design changes are still possible, Rauscher said.
The federal government will pay 80 percent of the estimated $60 million to $80 million project. State government will contribute 10 percent of the cost, while Winooski and Burlington will each pay 5 percent.
Winooski’s share is anticipated to cost $4.6 million. Construction would begin in 2027, and in order to make use of the federal funding, the work must be finished by 2031.
The bond would raise the tax rate for Winooski residents up to 4 percent starting in 2028.
Small Town, Big Issue
After hours of public debate, the Burlington City Council declined to allow a ballot item that would have let city voters weigh in on a pro-Palestine resolution. But residents in Newfane, population 1,645, are set to vote on a similar measure.
“We feel like we’re complicit in genocide,” said Dan DeWalt, a leader of Southern Vermont for Palestine, which spearheaded efforts to get a cease-fire resolution on Newfane’s ballot. In recent months, DeWalt and his allies have coordinated protests in Brattleboro and weekly vigils in other towns.
The Windham County town has a history of passing left-leaning resolutions. Voters have called for the impeachment of then-president George W. Bush and the closure of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
This time, volunteers gathered more than 90 signatures, surpassing the 75 needed to put the Palestine resolution to a town-wide vote. The proposed item calls for a cease-fire in the Middle East conflict and for Vermont’s congressional representatives to promote an end to arms sales to Israel.
Earlier this month, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) all voted against additional military aid for Israel.
While proponents don’t expect to influence international action, they feel compelled to voice their opposition to the United States’ involvement. “If we’re paying for weapons, we are responsible,” said Johanna Gardner, a Newfane resident who helped get the resolution on the ballot.
The Buzz
Greensboro voters are dealing with a dilemma closer to home. Residents will be asked to declare the Northeast Kingdom town a “pollinator-friendly community” where townspeople avoid using insecticides that can harm bees.
An identical measure in 2019 in Cabot inspired the item. The Greensboro Conservation Commission has been focusing on pollinator health, an important issue for growers in rural Orleans County.
“We want to encourage everyone in town to make sure that we have a vibrant environment and to be good stewards of the land,” commission chair Chris Steel said. Steel hopes the resolution can help set the tone for both local and state-level change regarding the use of neonicotinoids, insecticides that kill bees over time.
The issue is already on the radar of state lawmakers, who are considering a bill that would prohibit planting neonicotinoid-treated seeds and the use of neonicotinoid spray.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Robin Chesnut-Tangerman (D-Middletown Springs), said he’s “delighted” by Greensboro’s initiative. “It really reflects what I’ve been hearing from everyday Vermonters regarding this bill,” he said.
Steel is optimistic that Greensboro voters will approve the resolution. The protection of bees has the support of Jasper Hill Farm, the nationally known Greensboro cheesemaking operation, which in recent years has planted pollinator pathways — flower-filled avenues for bees — on its land.
Making the Grade
When it snows, students at Woodstock Union High School & Middle School sometimes have to evacuate its gym as the roof groans overhead, according to Ben Ford, a Woodstock representative to the Mountain Views Supervisory Union school board. And when it’s too hot, classes in certain parts of the school are canceled due to a failing cooling system, Ford said. Built in 1957, the school was ranked second worst when the state recently assessed schools in the Green Mountains.
“We’ve got quite a few people who live in our district who send their kids to other schools,” Ford said. “No wonder. We’ve got this awful building.”
The Mountain Views Supervisory Union has been planning for a new school for years. A $99 million bond vote would finance it. Voters in Barnard, Killington, Pomfret, Reading, Woodstock, Bridgewater and Plymouth will decide whether to write the check.
Ford, who is also the building committee chair, argues that it’s a good deal. The price per square foot is below the state’s standard for the past three years, he said: “It’s a real bargain for our communities and a real high-quality product.”
Still, the timing of the vote won’t help its chances. Residents statewide face double-digit school tax increases due to increased spending, inflation and changes in the state aid formula. Property taxes in some towns in the supervisory union are forecasted to increase by up to 30 percent. The building project alone could drive a tax hike of up to 16 percent in future years.
The most ideal financing plan assumes that student enrollment will increase in the next decade, which would reduce the school’s cost per pupil. Some residents are skeptical, however, since enrollment has been declining.
“The problem with the entirety of the proposal is nothing is based in fact,” one man wrote on Facebook. “It is all convenient hyperbole that is contrary to what real data is telling us about projected attendance, actual cost and real tax implications.”
What if the bond fails? Said Ford: “It’s absolutely not the end of this.”
Please, Mr. Postman
For almost 20 years Berlin residents have appealed to the United States Postal Service to open a post office in their town of 2,849. Without one, important packages often end up at wrong locations.
“It makes it very confusing for everyone,” said Ture Nelson, interim town administrator for Berlin. This Town Meeting Day, Berlin is again set to collectively ask for a post office.
“Sadly, [residents] are kind of worn down at this point,” Nelson said. “We’ve been trying for this for over 20 years without any success.”
There’s a reason to hope, though. In February, in response to flooding that closed Montpelier’s post office months before, the postal service opened a temporary location — inside the Berlin mall. Berlin residents hope that temporary establishment becomes permanent.
“This has become a really good opportunity to bring this up again,” Nelson said.
Hanging Up the Spurs
Say “constable,” and visions of old royal courts might come to mind — not rural Vermont. And yet a number of small towns are still electing or appointing constables.
The position of constable was established in the Vermont Constitution, and until about a decade ago constables had authority to enforce the law within the boundaries of their towns — even if they had no law enforcement training.
Today, a constable who acts as a police officer is required to undergo training, but as more towns contract with state police and sheriff’s departments, the role is becoming obsolete. In both Johnson and Windham, voters will consider whether to “prohibit the town constable from exercising any law enforcement authority.”
Currently, nothing explicitly prevents Johnson’s constables from taking it upon themselves to enforce the law, assuming they have formal law enforcement certification. The town’s current constable, Dean Locke, is not certified and only enforces town regulations surrounding animal control, solid waste and dilapidated buildings.
In the 1990s, when Johnson started contracting with the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department, the selectboard removed law enforcement from the description of the constable’s position. But the town didn’t explicitly forbid a constable from acting as an officer of the law.
Selectboard member Duncan Hastings wants to proactively prohibit the constable from acting as a cop. Hastings served as town administrator in Georgia from 1991 to 2001 and remembers an elected constable who decided to behave like a police officer.
“He bought a car, a high-powered firearm, and was on his own doing speed patrols and burglary investigations,” Hastings said with a chuckle. “The very next year, the town voted to rescind the constable’s law enforcement abilities. We were lucky we didn’t get sued.”
Other Vermont towns have been rethinking constables. According to the Vermont League of Cities & Towns, 10 municipalities voted last year to eliminate the position, and three switched from elected to appointed constables.
Seats to Fill
A new era awaits the five-member South Burlington City Council. Three incumbents are retiring, including chair Helen Riehle and Councilor Meaghan Emery. Emery has served seven two-year terms and is currently the longest-tenured council member. Together, the pair have nearly three decades of experience.
“It’s hard to leave, but at the same time, I feel that the city really has a pretty clear path forward,” said Riehle, who played an outsize role in developing the city’s comprehensive plan and the emerging South Burlington City Center.
Emery, meanwhile, said she was too busy as an associate professor of French at the University of Vermont to continue in her city role. During her public service, she pushed for a noise-abatement program to help residents affected by the Vermont Air National Guard’s F-35 jets.
“I was really torn about not running,” Emery told Seven Days. “But I’m in a time in my professional life when I need to give my energy to further those goals.”
Councilor Tyler Barnes, who was elected to a two-year term last March, announced last fall that he would be stepping down to take a job out of state.
Six candidates are vying for the three open positions. Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a former school board member, is unopposed in the race for the remaining year of Barnes’ term.
Julian Keenan, a member of the city’s Natural Resources & Conservation Committee, is seeking Emery’s two-year seat, as are Mike Scanlan, a former American diplomat, and Lydia Diamond, a social justice advocate who has served on the school board.
Meanwhile, Laurie Smith, a member of the planning commission, is running for Riehle’s three-year seat against Linda Bailey, who has served on the Natural Resources & Conservation Committee alongside Keenan.
Riehle acknowledged the challenges ahead for the new city council. “It does leave the council with not nearly as much of a historical perspective,” Riehle said. “But it allows the city to reaffirm what our vision and pathway forward will be.”
Correction, February 21, 2024: A previous version of this story erroneously described Meaghan Emery’s tenure on the South Burlington City Council as the longest in city history.