Duxbury Selectboard, road foreman clash over proposed wage increases

January 5, 2025 | By Cheryl Casey | Correspondent

The Duxbury Selectboard voted on Friday to increase the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget for road crew salaries after Road Foreman Brian Gibbs said he would resign if he did not receive a 19% raise.

A Duxbury truck plows on River Road. File photo by Gordon Miller

Friday, Jan. 3, was the third consecutive day of meetings for the board in response to the road foreman’s demands, which selectboard member Jerry McMahan said arrived via email on Dec. 31, “the day before a major storm,” adding, “It’s extortion.” In the board’s 3-1 decision, McMahan cast the single “no” vote against the increases.

The request for a 19% raise was included in the budget Gibbs submitted to the town Budget Committee as it worked on a draft for the selectboard to present to voters on Town Meeting Day, which is March 4 this year. The selectboard has been working on the draft budget for initial public discussion at the “Citizens’ Have Your Say Day” meeting on Saturday, Jan. 11.

“I have brought this matter up two years in a row and it gets ignored,” Gibbs wrote to the board. “The budget that I handed in with our salaries on it seems like a huge jump because we have been so behind on what all our surrounding towns are at. Those numbers are just to get us comparable to surrounding towns. As many of you I am sure have noticed there are zero people pounding on our door to work here. Nobody wants to work anymore.”

In preparing the draft budget, the board rejected Gibbs’ proposed numbers and instead budgeted for the three-person crew to receive raises of 3.2%, above the 2.5% cost of living adjustment for 2025. This decision prompted Gibbs to write to the board, pointing out significant disparities between the Duxbury road crew salaries and those of road crew members in surrounding towns, particularly with regard to the foreman positions.

The selectboard held an emergency meeting on New Year’s Day to discuss the matter in executive session and continued their discussion in a second executive session on Jan. 2. At the special public meeting on Friday, Jan. 3, board Chair Richard Charland proposed amending the two of the three salary lines in question, proposing $78,520 for the foreman position (a 19% increase), $69,680 for road crew member 1 (a 15% increase), and $55,836 for road crew member 2 who is on leave (the original 3.2% increase the board listed).

During Friday’s public discussion, Charland reported that he contacted town officials in neighboring Moretown, Waitsfield, and Waterbury — and intended to contact Bolton and Middlesex when they reopened on Monday— to discuss their respective highway department budgets and make some comparisons. Vice Chair Jamison Ervin described Duxbury as falling midway in a wide range of road crew salaries, even with the proposed increases, according to a report from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns. The Jan. 3 meeting minutes posted on the selectboard webpage contains Gibbs’ communications with the board and the League of Cities and Towns information.

Several Duxbury residents attending the all-remote meeting pushed back against an apples-to-apples comparison with surrounding municipalities’ budget lines, noting the differences in crew sizes and responsibilities, roadway infrastructure, and tax bases. 

Ervin openly expressed her dismay at the situation. “I think it’s beyond unprofessional, but the road crew has made their demand,” she said. “The reality is this is a road crew’s market.” 

As a case in point, Ervin cited the difficulties the town has had in recent months to hire a supplemental employee while crew member Randy Fiske is on leave. The position remains vacant after several months of searching.  “Finding someone with a [commercial driver’s license] is all but impossible,” explained Ervin. “If they both [Gibbs and road crew member Eric Austin] leave, we put our town in jeopardy…and it’s the middle of winter.”

“I’m not happy about it but I will vote for the increase because I think we have no choice,” Ervin decided.

Charland added, “If we had a pool of people we could draw from, that would be very helpful in setting rates. The problem we have in all towns is there’s no pool or resource to draw from.” He reminded those present that the proposed budget is not yet finalized for the March 4 vote. “Have Your Say Day is the time for the people to come back to the board and let us know how they feel about the budget and anything else that goes on in the Town of Duxbury,” he said.

The pre-Town Meeting gathering is scheduled for this Saturday at Crossett Brook Middle School, starting at 8:30 a.m. The meeting offers a chance for voters to hear a presentation about the draft budget, ask questions and offer feedback before the selectboard must sign off on the version that will be on the Town Meeting Day ballot. Read more here. 

Come March 4, “The decision is not the selectboard’s. The decision is the voters of the town,” Charland emphasized.

Charland, Ervin, and board member Patrick Zachary all voted in favor of the road crew pay increases; McMahan voted no.  Fifth board member Crystal Sherman was not in attendance.

A revised version of the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget has not been posted on the Duxbury town website yet. The board included a draft version in its Dec. 30 meeting minutes, but revisions were made at that meeting as well as the Jan. 3 revision to the highway department section. Before the revisions were made, the draft called for a bottom line of $1.28 million, up 10% over the $1.16 million voters approved last year. McMahan on Sunday said road crew wage increases would add an estimated 2 cents to the town tax rate.

This post will be updated with a link to the budget draft for Saturday’s community meeting when it is available.