Town Meeting Day roundup: Mad River Valley

March 6, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

A citizen-group petition put a question on Moretown’s Town Meeting Day ballot asking voters if they want to consider leaving the Harwood Union school district in the wake of attempts by the district to reconfigure Moretown Elementary School. Voters turned that down. File photo by Gordon Miller.

Moretown rejects leaving school district, approves all spending articles

The Moretown Selectboard wasn’t happy about a ballot item brought by petition to ask voters whether it was time to leave the Harwood Union School District. 

With a vote of 360-201, voters on Tuesday at least for now have put that discussion off for another day. The item was organized by a citizen group unhappy with the consolidated district since 2017 and attempts over the past couple of years to gradually disperse students from Moretown Elementary to other schools in the district. 

The 2021-22 budget for the HUUSD however leaves school configurations alone given the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes were paused with an eye toward the 2022-23 school year when new moves may be put in place to further consolidate school campuses. 

Moretown was the only town in the six-town district not to report its election results on the $40.39 million school budget and a question on splitting a $2.2 million surplus with $1 million put toward maintenance, $600,000 into next fiscal year’s budget and the remaining $615,000 aside for figure operations or projects. 

The budget passed in the district overall 1,808 to 1,180, according to results released by the school district. Those figures did not offer town breakdowns. The surplus question also won approval, 1,931 to 1,045. 

While most candidates were unopposed on the ballot, incumbent Selectboard Chair Tom Martin had a write-in challenger, Don Wexler, whom he defeated easily, 500-136. Allison Dellner was a write-in challenger to Emily Wood for library trustee; Wood won, 513-43. The only contested office on the Moretown ballot was incumbent Harwood school board member Kristin Rodgers who won re-election 372-116 over newcomer Sam Rosenberg. 

Voters otherwise approved a number of spending items including a budget for fiscal 2021 of $1.2 million by a vote of 514-61; $370,000 for sidewalk repairs won 459-109; $22,000 for self-contained breathing apparatus equipment for the Moretown Volunteer Fire Department, 489-77. Two votes created a maintenance reserve fund and put $10,000 in it. Voters also said yes, 535-46, to spending $10,000 on bridge and culvert upkeep. 

Results were provided by Town Clerk Cherilyn Brown. Moretown saw a turnout of 38% of its roughly 1,500 registered voters after mailing ballots to everyone registered. 

Waitsfield settles contests for selectboard; backs legal cannabis  

Waitsfield voters took the time to write in the winner for a three-year selectboard seat giving challenger Fred Messer 244 votes to board chair Paul Hartshorn’s 204.  

In a three-way race, current Harwood Union School Board member Christine Sullivan won a new job -- a two-year seat on the selectboard. With 243 votes, she topped former board member Sal Spinosa, 175, and George Carpenter Jr., 92. 

The rest of the ballot was uncontested and all of the other articles won approval including the question of opting into the legal recreational cannabis market coming together in Vermont in the next year or so. That won a substantial margin, 382-121.

Voters also were generous with the other articles, granting five-year property tax exemptions  

to the Waitsfield Couple’s Club Recreation Field and the Mad River Valley Ambulance Service. 

Town voters also approved the proposed budget of $2.1 million along with a $4,000 contribution to the Mad River Valley Housing Coalition for a new housing initiative.  

Voters were on board with the Harwood Unified Union School District’s proposed $40.39 million budget, voting in favor 333-173. That measure passed in the six-town Harwood Union district easily, 1,808 to 1,180. 

A second school district question proposed splitting a $2.2 million surplus with $1 million put toward maintenance, $600,000 into next fiscal year’s budget and the remaining $615,000 aside for figure operations or projects. Waitsfield voted 360-146 in favor; the district passed it 1,931 to 1,045. 

Turnout in Waitsfield was about 33% of the town’s 1,500 or so voters. Results were compiled by Town Clerk Jennifer Peterson.  

Warren approves budget; funds ambulance, conservation, housing 

Town Meeting Day election turnout in Warren was just 19% with 296 voters of 1,538 registered casting ballots. That was enough however to decide a contested race for delinquent tax collector in favor of Dayna Lisaius over Jeff Campbell, 214-63. 

All others on the ballot were unopposed including Town Clerk Reta Goss and Luke Youmell for a two-year term on the Board of Selectmen. 

The proposed town budget of $3.27 million won approval as did several other spending items: $15,000 to Mad River Valley Ambulance Service to help pay for replacing an aging ambulance; $20,000 to the Conservation Reserve Fund for conservation projects outlined by a town commission; and $4,000 for an initiative by the Mad River Valley Housing Coalition. 

The town also supported the Harwood Unified Union School District’s proposed $40.39 million budget 181-107; that passed in the six-town Harwood Union district easily, 1,808 to 1,180. A second school district question proposed splitting a $2.2 million surplus with $1 million put toward maintenance, $600,000 into next fiscal year’s budget and the remaining $615,000 aside for figure operations or projects. Warren voted 210-81 in favor of that; the district passed it 1,931 to 1,045. 

Fayston approves all Town Meeting Day business 

Just under 17% of Fayston’s nearly 1,300 voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election in which few candidates were opposed on the ballot and the $1.37 million town budget won an overwhelming 204-9 vote. 

The $15,000 allocation the Mad River Ambulance received just one no vote to 204 affirmatives and an initiative by Mad River Valley Housing Coalition easily got approval for a $4,000 contribution, 162-51. 

The town also approved two articles for the $40.39 million Harwood Unified Union School budget and a plan to allocate a $2.2 million school district surplus between next year’s budget, $1 million to a maintenance reserve fund and the rest set aside in a “rainy day” fund.

Town Clerk Patti Lewis who was unopposed for re-election as clerk, treasurer, and delinquent tax collector provided election results.