Newcomer Sweeney wins Select Board seat by 17 votes
March 7, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti March 11: This story was updated with more details and photos.
Voting stations are set up on one end of the Brookside Primary School gym with the Town Meeting gathering filling the rest of the space. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
By a 17-vote margin, newcomer select board candidate Kane Sweeney unseated veteran select board member Chris Viens in a three-way race for two seats in Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day election.
Incumbent Roger Clapp was the top vote-getter with 504 votes, followed by Sweeney with 337 and Viens with 320, according to results from Town Clerk Karen Petrovic.
The race was the only contest on the Waterbury election ballot. Incumbent Select Board member Alyssa Johnson was unopposed for a three-year seat having served a one-year term already.
Turnout of 676 ballots cast was just under 15% of Waterbury’s 4,540 registered voters.
Roger Clapp. Courtesy photo
Kane Sweeney. Courtesy photo
Alyssa Johnson. Courtesy photo
On Tuesday night, Viens, who has served 10 years on the board, said he accepts the result and would not request a recount although the margin is close enough to warrant one under state law. “I knew it would be close,” he said. “This is all part of democracy.”
Sweeney, who began campaigning last fall, said he hopes to focus on issues that affect working people such as affordable housing and wages “to turn a new leaf for Waterbury.”
Viens reflects, suggests building community
Chris Viens. Courtesy photo
Viens, 63, was first elected to the Select Board in 2012 but was involved on the Planning Commission prior to that and was engaged in town affairs. He advocated for cost-cutting measures in proposals for a new downtown fire station that, after multiple votes, eventually was built and completed shortly before Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
Despite the competition on the ballot this election, Viens said he didn’t actively campaign ahead of Town Meeting Day. For example, although signs for Sweeney and Clapp popped up around town in February, Viens did not put any out. “I detest signs,” he said. Given his years of service on the board, he said he stood on his record and didn’t think he needed to “beg” voters for their support.
In keeping with a personal practice, Viens said he did not even vote for himself on the ballot, nor did he join the voice votes during Town Meeting on the various questions posed. “I didn’t vote once,” he said. “I take to heart what [Town Moderator] Jeff Kilgore said,” Viens explained, referring to the Select Board meeting recently when Kilgore reviewed the process with the board in preparation for Town Meeting. “Town Meeting is the people’s meeting. They decide.”
A campaign sign for Roger Clapp along Blush Hill Road. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
An excavation contractor, Viens is known for his careful scrutiny of town spending on public works projects and strong advocacy for frugal but thorough upkeep on town roads and bridges. He shares his expertise on construction-related issues, most recently calling for the town to explore establishing its own source of stone and gravel for road maintenance. Funds are in the 2023 town budget to investigate a possible quarry site on Sweet Road in Waterbury Center for just that purpose.
Viens’ tenure on the Select Board was not without controversy, however. He served as chair for several years but stepped down from that role in late 2020 after comments about race and policing that he made during a run for the Vermont House drew fire from town residents who petitioned for him to step aside.
Over the past two years, there has been much public discussion about racial justice, inclusion, and the town’s public messaging around the topic. A new community group, the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition, formed to promote anti-racism and encourage town leaders to take a public stand. At its urging, the Select Board in 2021 adopted a Declaration of Inclusion which was added to the town website. The board and municipal manager also took part in facilitated workshops with a diversity and inclusion educator.
After the anti-racism group flew a banner for several months promoting the “Black Lives Matter” message, the Select Board was asked to rehang it. Opposed to that specific message saying it had become too controversial, Viens supported creating a banner using language from the town declaration. That banner has been flying now for more than a year.
Last month, a new identical banner was put up replacing the original that had become torn and damaged from the elements. During a Select Board discussion, Viens suggested that instead of using vinyl banners, the town consider something more permanent such as putting the message, “Waterbury Vermont condemns racism and welcomes all,” on a wooden sign.
He said that would show a commitment to the sentiment and he also said he hoped the board would look to how it could further the ideals it represents.
After the election result on Tuesday, he reiterated his suggestion “to put teeth behind words in the banner – we need to make the words stick.”
He points out how demographics in the town are changing as many new residents move in. “I know less and less people. Many I knew are either dying or leaving,” Viens lamented. “A community of strangers is not a community.”
Viens said he would love to see informal community forums with the goal of people mingling with others outside their usual circles. They could happen at the primary school or the Grange Hall, he suggested, where people sit at tables and “the only requirement is that you talk to people you don’t already know.” People could meet neighbors and even make business connections, he added.
Short of that, however, Viens said he expects he still will attend occasional Select Board meetings as a citizen. “I just can’t walk away from town business after all these years,” he said.
A new face and focus
Reached Tuesday evening, 29-year-old Sweeney, sounded happy and a bit surprised by the results of the vote that he began working toward last fall with informal get-togethers to meet people and talk about local issues.
He said he’s used the word “we” in talking about running for the Select Board. “It wasn’t just me,” he said. “There was a handful of volunteers who wanted to help turn a new leaf for Waterbury.”
Sweeney created a campaign website, knocked on doors, wrote posts on Front Porch Forum and even made some phone calls. On Town Meeting Day, he was outside Brookside Primary School with a campaign sign, greeting voters on the sidewalk. He said he didn’t go in to join the meeting. “I stayed outside shaking hands,” he said.
A Kane Sweeney campaign sign at Brookside Primary School. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
As someone who works as a cook and has first-hand experience in a labor union and on the restaurant scene in recent years, Sweeney is especially tuned into issues important to working-class Vermonters, particularly around wages and housing.
“Many working people are stuck in bad leases because there’s no alternatives,” he said about the rental housing market. He shared how his sister is a school teacher in Montpelier but could not find a place to rent near her job and instead commutes from South Burlington.
Waterbury is poised to make some progress on housing with the Downstreet Housing and Community Development project to build 26 apartments at 51 South Main Street. Voters in the Edward Farrar Utility District, which comprises the area of the former village municipality, voted overwhelmingly last fall to support the sale of the lot by the utility to the nonprofit housing agency. Downstreet is working on financing and design and after permitting, hopes to commence construction by late 2023.
“The Downstreet project fell into our lap,” Sweeney said. “We were lucky to get that project.”
Sweeney said he believes local governments can play a role in attracting more housing development that people who work in town can afford. “I do look forward greatly to seeing what we can do to increase the supply to meet the demand,” he said.
Sweeney’s first meeting as a Select Board member will be Monday, March 20, when the board meets to reorganize for the coming year.
Other election results
People vote inside the school gym while town meeting takes place. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Some voters have company. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Earlier in the day, Waterbury held its first in-person town meeting since 2020 with about 150 people gathering in the gym at Brookside Primary School to debate and approve budget articles. Two motions from the floor addressed appropriations of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. One sought to allocate a second $50,000 to CVFiber to expand internet service in the community and it failed on a voice vote. Another motion to cut in half a $100,000 ARPA allocation to the Downstreet Housing and Community Development affordable housing project on Main Street also failed on a voice vote.
Voters ultimately approved the proposed budget without any changes, supporting $7,079,047 for the combined general fund, highway fund, library budget and special articles totaling just over $39,000 to 25 nonprofit organizations. They also approved lengthening the terms for the town clerk and treasurer from one year each to three years starting in 2024.
Stickers beside the ballot boxes on Town Meeting Day. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Petrovic won her first election as town clerk and treasurer after being appointed to those positions last fall when former Town Clerk Carla Lawrence retired. Other offices voters filled on Tuesday were: Mary Woodruff for lister, Kit Walker for library commissioner, and Janice Gendreau for Cemetery Commission.
Returning to the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board are Jake Pitman for a three-year seat after being appointed last fall to fill a vacancy and Kelley Hackett to one year of an unexpired term after serving a three-year term.