Moretown: Not all ballots in the mail; info meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 22

Feb, 19, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

Drive-through voting is planned for 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Town Meeting Day, March 1, at Moretown Elementary School. File photo by Gordon Miller

For the second Town Meeting Day in a row, Moretown voters will not only vote using a drive-through system, but town officials decided to mail town ballots to all active registered voters ahead of March 1. 

There’s one catch: the mailed ballots do not include ballots to vote on any school district business. At last week’s Harwood Unified Union School District School Board meeting, Moretown member Lisa Mason asked that school communications regarding the Town Meeting Day election remind Moretown voters to seek out the ballots to vote on the school budget questions. The school district is asking voters to approve a proposed $42.6 million annual budget and to approve putting a surplus of just over $1.5 million into the maintenance reserve fund. 

Voters will also be asked to mark an additional school-related ballot pertaining to the Central Vermont Career Center in Barre which is seeking to form a new school district and elect several at-large members for its new board. That decision is being put to voters in 18 communities across six school districts including Harwood that send students to the vocational school. 

Moretown is the only town in the HUUSD school district that opted to send its town election ballots out by mail. Because the school district must use the same procedure in all of its communities - either mailing, or having ballots available by request - school ballots could not be included with the Moretown municipal election ballots. 

As a result, Moretown voters who would like to vote early on all matters will need to request school ballots by calling or emailing Town Clerk Cherilyn Brown (802-882-8218 or townclerk@moretownvt.net) or by making an online request on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website. Voters also may go to the polls on March 1 to drop off their town ballots and vote the school ballots in person. Voting will be held outside the Moretown Elementary School on Route 100B from 7 a.m to 7 p.m. 

Informational meeting Tuesday, Feb. 22

This year many municipalities including Moretown will again not have an in-person Town Meeting due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That means that all articles will be decided by paper ballot. 

The Moretown Select Board will hold an informational meeting Tuesday, Feb. 22, remotely via Zoom to present information about the ballot items and answer questions from the public. The meeting begins at 7 p.m., immediately following a regular meeting of the select board at 6 p.m. The agenda for both with the Zoom link and telephone dial-in details is online on the town website under Select Board agendas. 

More Town Meeting Day information including the town report, town and school warnings, etc. is online at moretownvt.org/town-meeting-day.

Another Zoom meeting will take place on Monday, Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. for the HUUSD School Board to conduct its annual meeting and budget presentation. 

Several items of standard annual district business will be done and district officials will do a presentation on the proposed $42.6 million school budget. That represents an increase of 5.6% over school spending for the current year. It also will address the request to voters to approve putting $1.5 million into the district’s maintenance fund. 

More details on the school district’s budget, annual report, Town Meeting Day warning, etc. and details for the Feb. 28 meeting are on the HUUSD.org home page.

An online informational meeting has already been held for the Central Vermont Career Center proposals on the March 1 ballot. That was recorded and can be found here.  

What’s on the ballot 

Moretown voters are asked this year to approve a town budget of $1,366,307 for fiscal year 2023 which is up nearly 13% from the current budget. 

As for elections, neither of Moretown’s two seats on the school board are up for election this year. And, while a number of town offices will be filled by the voters, none of the positions are contested. 

Other questions on the ballot include: 

• Articles 6 and 7 look to voters to approve eliminating the positions of auditor and lister as the town has shifted to contracting for those services. 

• Article 8 asks to spend $30,000 plus interest on a tractor for plowing and mowing. 

• Article 9 asks voters to approve $20,000 for the town to spend to contract for law enforcement with either the Vermont State Police or the Washington County Sheriff’s Department. In the select board report in the town annual report, Chair Thomas Martin writes: “In general, we live in a peaceful town, but maybe a police presence will help control the speeding.” 

• Article 10 asks voters to approve raising $10,000 to put into the town maintenance reserve fund. 

• Article 11 asks voters to approve spending up to $22,000 for self-contained breathing apparatus equipment for the Moretown Volunteer Fire Department. 

• Article 12 asks to set aside up to $10,000 for the repair and upkeep of bridges and culverts. 

• Articles 13 through 33 list a variety of contributions to nonprofit organizations that the taxpayers support annually. They include $4,999 for the Waterbury Area Senior Center’s Meals on Wheels program; $3,750 for Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice;  $1,500 for the Mad River Valley Senior Center and Meals on Wheels program; $1,200 for Washington County Mental Health; and $1,200 for Central Vermont Adult Basic Education. Many are under $1,000 such as $400 to Capstone Community Action and $100 for Green Up Vermont. The list totals $21,224. 

• Article 34, the final article on the ballot, asks whether Moretown should authorize the cannabis retailers and integrated licensees under the state law that is allowing for the creation of a commercial cannabis industry to be regulated by the state commencing later this year.