A collection of stories from Assistant Professor Charlotte Albright's Electrionic Journalism II class.

Students fanned out across the Northeast Kingdom to experience, first hand, the Vermont tradition of town meeting. The collection below is just a snippet of the work that they've done in this class.

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Barnet
By:  Michelle Wilcox

It can be debated whether Town Meeting day is government of the past. But in Vermont, town meeting day is still a stronghold for direct democracy. An example of this democracy in action was at the Barnet town meeting. 

The atmosphere was bright and conversational as the residents of Barnet gathered into the school gym for their annual town meeting. The Selectboard took their places on the stage and residents with their town warning and annual reports sat in their seats waiting for the meeting to start. 

The school’s kitchen filled the air with food as the cooks were preparing for lunch. The meeting began at eleven a.m. and Theodore Faris, Chair of the selectboard addressed the issues on the warning. Many of the action items had to deal with approving appropriation of money to various services and elections for a moderator and town officials. The Lake Harvey Association was a group among the crowd that was asking the town of Barnet to appropriate a sum of $10,000 to use for a boat wash program (Article 11). The purpose of this program according to Jan Sherman president of the Association was to prevent milfoil and other invasive species at Harvey’s lake. The lake is one of the town’s major water resources and to protect it is important to the community. The voters approved the article with the old fashion yay or nay vote. The town used the Australian ballot to vote on the waste district budget. The results were 101 votes in favor of the budget and 15 votes against. 

The town meeting operated smoothly and residents were attentive and questioned any articles that they did not understand. But for the most part the meeting went by in a timely fashion. But it was at the school district meeting where many concerns were raised.

The issue was deciding whether to transfer $70,000 from the school fund reserved for tuition to the 2011 fiscal year budget. Shannon Larocque a school board member said it was because the money that was reserved for tuition had not been used in the last years. The board requested it to be allocated in the school budget. The voters approved the allocation but even with the transfer of money the expenditure budget was still down compared to last year. The voters were concerned programs were going to be cut because of this slight deficit. The expenditure budget right now is above 4.2 million dollars. Larocque said that they were cutting three positions, but assured the residents that they were cutting the bare minimum. Both the school and the town boards were cooperative and listened to any of the concerns of the people. When the town meeting adjourned for lunch the room was loud again. Looking around the room anyone could see that these local people care about their town and how it is governed. 

 

Burke
By:  Brian Howe

The Town of Burke thought its plate was going to be light this year during Town Meeting Day, but that quickly changed during the informational meeting on Monday night. All but one of the select board members resigned, during the meeting, because they didn't agree with how one of the select board members conducted herself during meetings. This stunned the town but they continued with Town Meeting day as planned. The town faced a huge decision and this was on how to pay for the new community building. The final choice of the voters was to pay back the building in 15 years and not 20, after all is done in 15 years they will pay about $20,000 dollars. The town budget of over one million dollars also did pass by a unanimous vote. Now both, West and East fire departments of Burke will receive $15,000 dollars apiece. The final biggest piece was the decision on whether or not to give nearly $1,500 dollars to Fairbanks Museum so that they could go there for the year for free, but at the end of the day it did pass.

Now on the other side of things, the School agenda was not as robust with items. The town did elect Howard Crawford to be the moderator for one year. Christine Emmons will be the school director for the next two years, while Tony Demasi will be the school director for the next three years. The town will appropriate nearly four million dollars to the school budget, which will begin on July 1^st of this year.

 

Concord
By:  RJ Brownell

Concord held its annual town meeting at the Concord Town Hall on March 1st, 2010. Town residents who were in attendance were able to voice their opinions on the 28 articles, which were in the agenda. Concord's articles are passed by the way of the Australian Ballot which took place on the morning of March 2nd, 2010. In the Australian Ballot voting process, any resident of their respective town is free to come in and individually vote on the articles in the town agenda. This will ultimately decide which articles are denied or approved.

One of the major articles that were address at this year's town meeting was whether or not to close down Concord High School. Resident Heather Heiser was very vocal on her opinion on the matter saying "I'm hoping we can close down the high school, I doubt it will happen and I want all of the school budgets and things like that to pass but I would like to focus more on the elementary school and less on the high school."

Another article involved taking $40,000 from the Connecticut River Enhancement Fund to make improvements to Shadow Lake Road. The road is currently covered with potholes and has had flooding problems in the past.

Article 24 in the agenda addressed exceeding $100,000 from the Connecticut River Enhancement Fund towards the purchase of a new town truck with a plow to help with road maintenance.

The town officials will tally all of the votes and announce the results within the next couple of days.

 

Danville
By:  Lindsay McCarthy

As you drive through Danville, Vermont and see what's left of the grass start to pop through the melting snow, you begin to wonder what is in store for you on this amazing day in March at the annual town meeting.

When you arrive at the Danville school and walk past the tables selling donuts, coffee and Girl Scout cookies, it quickly becomes apparent that the town of Danville is full of friendly people who stop their conversation to turn to you and say hello.

People keep trickling into the school's gymnasium at ten after ten, and just when you think the meeting won't start anytime soon, the Boy Scouts of Danville enter with flags and the Pledge of Allegiance is recited.

The meeting started out good, they were nominating people for the town moderator, lister, selectman, auditor, grand jurors, tax collectors.  There was at least one person nominated for each position, so it will be nice to hear that they all got the positions that they wanted.

Things did start to heat up however, when the appropriation for the Pope Memorial library came to attention.  The library was asking for a sum of  $25,000 so that they can meet their operational expenses.   "Why should we have to pay so much when the state of the economy is in such horrible position?"  seemed to be the main question to this appropriation  sum.  One Danville man, a teacher proposed that instead of twenty-five thousand, the library only get $24,00. Another Danville resident stood up for himself and talked about how in the next two years, he might be forced to sell his land because of the price of property taxes.  His farm was in his family for over 150 years, and as he said this, he got choked up and apologized.

The library got all but a thousand dollars that it had asked for, making the total $24,000

In addition to the library getting money, the Caledonia Home Health Care and Hospice service was appropriated the sum of $2,600, Umbrella inc was appropriated $1,200 and the Northeast Kingdom Youth Services were appropriated $750.00

It was a rough two hours before the lunch break, but a lot got accomplished, and there are several very happy services that will be able to make a difference in the community because of the appropriations given.

 

Kirby
By:  George Ramos

The town of Kirby had a huge turnout for their town meeting today. Residents voted on several key issues spanning from municipal items to school district items. Along with the issues facing the town, Kirby re-elected several Town Officers: Town Clerk - Wanda Grant, Moderator - John McClaughry, and School Director - Cheryl McMahon. Tim Peters was elected as the towns new Selectman.

At 10:00am the School District meeting began with the moderator hitting his gavel, calling the meeting to order. After the Moderator and School Directors were re-elected, the articles were voted upon. The proposed school budget of $1,148,540 was passed. Another article voted on was to pay the School Directors $1000. All agreed and the article was passed. On the Town Meeting side of things, Article 8 was passed to allow the town to levy an interest charge on delinquent taxes. Article 10, also passed, permits the town of Kirby to provide town reports at least 30 days before Town Meeting Day through the Caledonia Record.

Another key vote was to increase the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District's budget from $610,015.00 (2009) to $606,120.00 (2010). A lower budget is being proposed because last years total expenses came out to $589,492.75. Polls closed at 7pm and results are soon to be made available.

After the meeting was over, residents indulged themselves in a wonderful array of food. Everyone that attended brought a different dish to make a potluck. There were pasta dishes, soups, breads, and deserts. The social gathering allowed for everyone to mingle while enjoying a hearty, home-cooked meal.

 

Lyndon:
By:  Caleb Noble

As Lyndon residents filed into the Town School's gymnasium many seemed eager to start the annual town meeting.  As the hammer hit the podium at 9 A.M. sharp the gym seemed as if it was a church. There were many open seats in the front of the room, but very few open seats in the back.  For the most part, Lyndon's town meeting was low key and had little discussion throughout the day. On all matters regarding aid for the elderly and public services such as the Area Agency on Aging,  the Caledonia Home Health Care Hospice, and the Northeast Kingdom Human Services,  voting was unanimous in favor of providing money for them.  Although the town meeting was for the most part low key, a few questions were raised and discussed over a few of the issues being voted on. One of them was over giving $5,000 dollars to the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium for this year in return for free and unlimited admission to Lyndon residents. After this was put on the table, Carol Fisher, a Lyndon resident voiced her concern that the town was wasting taxpayers' money on something that was not being taken advantage of by the town's residents. After her opinion was voiced, a man stood up and stated that his son went to the museum and planetarium over a dozen times a year. Also a woman commented and said that the weather station is there, which has a positive impact on the community. After these people talked, many heads were nodding in agreement with what was said. On the other hand, the only thing that was voted down during the town meeting was to enable participating property owners to access funding for eligible energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and to pay back the cost through their taxes. This clearly was the most involved discussion of the day. When it first came onto the table, people tried to vote quickly to skip it over, but others insisted to hear other voices about it so one could vote with knowledge on the subject.  Basically, this would provide money for citizens who made energy efficient improvements to their homes.  However, the homeowners would have to pay back the loans within twenty years. Many residents voiced how they believed that if the people did not pay back the money that they were loaned, the taxpayers would be held responsible. After much discussion and confusion, even though the moderator did not know what was going on, the town voted it down. This was a brief overview of the 2010 Lyndon Town Meeting.

 

Ryegate
By:  Christopher Shadrock

Starting promptly at 1 p.m., a packed house of Ryegate residents crowded into the Town Building. After the initial pomp and circumstance which included the reading of the Town Warning, Pledge of Allegiance, and an opening prayer by Rev. Catherine Cook of the Barnet Center Presbyterian Church the meeting began.

Article 1 started with the election of moderator and clerk. This was followed by the reading of Roberts Rules of Order, which led to Article 2 being opened for discussion.

The next hour and a half was tersely debated amongst the citizens. Money was the name of the game. Citizens showed great concern toward the large amount of unaccounted money, and were puzzled as to why the numbers did not add up. Although auditor Holly McClure assured no money was missing despite the differences.

Further frustration arose once an angry citizen brought up that the minutes from 2009's Article 2 did not get published with the towns annual report. However, one resident was against amending the Annual Report. He cited the minutes' inaccuracies calling it dangerous. He also insinuated the select board, moderator, and clerk might have an ulterior motive. It was a charge Marsha Nelson, the town clerk, steadfastly denied.

The last debate for article 2 was whether or not to have an outside auditor review the city books. Having been well over ten years since the last audit, all were in support. The divergence occurred when deciding how to fund it. One resident motioned the money come from the highway/transportation fund. The motion was voted down with a resounding "NO" from the residents, quickly followed by a thank you from the road crew, who had remained silent, until then. In the end the town voted to have the approximately $15,000 audit come from the budget. They gave the select board the task of finding the money from elsewhere in the budget.

After Article 2, the remaining seven passed without any resistance from the residence allowing the meeting to finish in less than thirty minutes.

 

Sheffield
By:  Michael Woodward

At 10 a.m. Tuesday March 2, 2010, families, friends and advocates, who are the residents of Sheffield, Vermont, began trickling into the warm town hall. The meeting began easy-going and smooth, but there was a sense that there was going to be some competition. When it came time to elect a school director for a term of one year, Article 15, there were three balloting cycles, for none of the three candidates had received over half of the ballots. Two of these ballot-voting rounds had three candidates, until one candidate withdrew, leaving a two candidate ballot vote was held again, and a school director was decided. Amongst the serious competition on serious topics, Sheffield's town meeting was filled with laughter, to be enjoyed between families and their neighbors.

 

St. Johnsbury
By:  Dylan Schlossberg

About 1,500 of 4,925 registered voters cast their ballots. 

Wheelock
By:  Jarryd Guinard

People woke up early and turned out in good numbers Tuesday morning as Wheelock held its annual Town Meeting. As I arrived at 8:30, seats were already quickly being filled as residents were anxious to vote on a few very key articles. They would have to wait though, as legislatures John Morley and John Rodgers took the floor first to discuss topics from high-speed internet to government job cuts to Vermont Yankee being closed down. Their presence also started the morning off with a laugh though, as everyone was happy when someone accused Mr. Morley and Mr. Rodgers of taking a pay increase and were quickly corrected when Mr. Morley stated they actually took a pay cut.

The normal routine then continued along the way as Town Administrators were nominated and easily voted on with hardly any discussion. That is until it came to electing a School Board representative. Three nominations were made and much more discussion followed. A debate continued for twenty minutes before the Moderator, Curtis Sjolander, called order and a vote was taken.

Other issues discussed at the Town Meeting were if the town should appropriate $150,000 to buy land to build a new municipal building which would replace the current one and possibly even have room for fire trucks. Other articles were if the town of Wheelock should appropriate $8,200 to assist the Sheffield-Wheelock Fire Department to buy a replacement fire truck, and if the town should raise $15,600 to help with the operating expenses for that same fire department.

One other issue was to be voted upon by Australian Ballot, which was to decide if the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District be authorized to appropriate and expend a budget of $606,120. Polls for this vote closed at 7:00pm last night and results will be released today.