Gary Reis

The Women’s Business and Professional Women of Vermont held a meeting to introduce the two thousand and ten select board candidates for St. Johnsbury. The event was held last night at the St. Johnsbury Welcome Center and each candidate was introduced. Community members asked any pressing questions they might have for the up coming year. Rodney Lamotte and Gary Reis are the two candidates running for a three-year term. Gary Reis has served on the board for almost five years as a select board member. He came to St. Johnsbury in 1976. His main goal is to achieve fiscal responsibility in the town. He believes that fiscal responsibility does not mean cutting costs it means leveling them. He would like to bring the towns water and sewer system up to speed because the current water system has been failing. He said, “We don’t want to spend money that we don’t need to spend.” Rodney Lamotte is the other candidate running for a three-year term. In 1961, he bought a service station and used car business in East St. Johnsbury called Rod’s Service Center. He then sold his business to his son in 1996. He was a select board member in the 80’s in the town of Kirby. His thoughts were that the economy is questionable and he does not want to see people spending a lot of extra money.

Raymond LaBounty Jr., DavidProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 cGregor, James Rust, and Bernard Timson are all running for a one-year term with two opening positions. Raymond LaBounty Jr. lives in the town of St. Johnsbury and is the father of six children. He wants to be proactive and not reactive. He stated that he is feeling the pinch and stress of paying extra tax money due to the downfall in the economy, and wants to help the community. David McGregor moved to St. Johnsbury in 1974. He attended St. Johnsbury Academy and went to the University of Vermont. His biggest issue with the town is he would like to see more economic growth and development for businesses. James Rust also lives in the town and has served on the select board for two years. He has served in the marine core for ten years and has been married for twenty-five years. Since 1996, James and his wife have owned Pettyco Junction Country Store in St. Johnsbury. James would like to find a way to balance everything out fore residents because they are most important. Lastly, Bernard K. Timson is also a business owner. He owns Timson Building and Siding and has been an owner since 1973. He does not want to see people spending extra money on taxes, and would like to see cuts in the town budget. He says, “Don’t increase spending.”

The two biggest concerns from the community members last night was how is the town going to improve economic growth and what is the plan about building a new fire station. The fire station will not be in this year’s town budget due to the financial crunch. The community gave their concerns about how they do not want to spend money on a new fire station. All select board members said they would like to plan for a new fire station in the future, but the town and people don’t have the money to do so right now. All select board members were in favor of trying to bring new businesses to the town. St. Johnsbury community members will be able to vote for these candidates on March 2nd on town meeting day.

Visit the St. Johnsbury town website for more information about all the candidates on this year's Australian Ballot