Duxbury aims to vote Nov. 16 to change March Town Meeting format

Town officials look to discuss long-term road rebuilding, too 

October 3, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

Should Duxbury forego its traditional in-person March Town Meeting for decision-making by paper ballot? 

That’s a question the Duxbury Selectboard has been debating recently and it has decided it’s time for the voters to weigh in at a special in-person town meeting – in November. 

Unless voters decide to change course, Duxbury would return to in-person voting at March Town Meeting 2023. The traditional meetings are often lengthy and sparsely attended compared with turnout for drive-through Australian ballot voting during the pandemic. File photo by Gordon Miller

The Selectboard voted on Sept. 26 to set Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. as the date and time for voters to meet at Crossett Brook Middle School to discuss the future format for March Town Meeting, starting as soon as 2023.

For the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no in-person Town Meetings were held to avoid large indoor gatherings. The state allowed municipalities that usually decide town business in person to switch to paper ballots, referred to as Australian ballots, which were available all day at election polls. Any informational meetings about the items on the ballots were held online via video conference. 

In Duxbury, town election officials opted to set up balloting outdoors using a drive-through system for multiple elections in 2020 (school budget re-vote, statewide primary and general election), 2021 (Town Meeting, school bond vote) and this year (Town Meeting, statewide primary and the upcoming Nov. 8 general election). 

In all cases, turnout markedly increased. “We’ve seen much higher participation,” said Town Clerk Maureen Harvey, referring to all of the votes.

Drive-through voting proved popular at multiple elections from 2020 through this year in Duxbury. File photo by Gordon Miller

Duxbury before the pandemic would hold an in-person town meeting with all town business – budget articles, special questions, and elections – decided by floor votes. Separate Australian ballot voting would be set up for statewide items and Harwood school district budget and elections, she noted. 

On Town Meeting Day in 2021 and this year, there was clearly an improvement with turnout of 338 and 348 voters respectively, amounting to just shy of 30%. Duxbury this March had 1,169 registered voters. 

In contrast, the Waterbury Record newspaper in 2020 reported that about 120 of Duxbury’s 1,152 registered voters that year attended the last in-person Town Meeting, which represented turnout of just 10%.

“Town Meeting is never more than about 100 people [in-person],” Harvey said. “Was it the drive-through set-up? Was it the Australian ballots?” 

The Selectboard’s discussions have centered on the desire to see more voter participation for all decisions that need to be made. Many towns across Vermont have grappled with the question of whether to retain traditional in-person meetings – and all of the discussion and debate those bring – given that attendance tends to be low because of their timing and length. The 2020 town meeting, according to the Waterbury Record report, lasted seven hours.   

Now that pandemic exceptions that allowed towns to suspend in-person town meetings have ended, cities and towns around Vermont will return to their typical meeting formats for Town Meeting Day next year, which falls on Tuesday, March 7. 

The Duxbury Selectboard has decided that if the format for that Town Meeting is to change, the decision needs to happen soon. 

Last Monday, the board voted 4-1 in favor of holding a special in-person meeting on Nov. 16 for voters to consider the issue. “Having to do this in-person is not ideal, but that is what the law requires,” said Vice Chair Jerry McMahan, commenting on how a vote to change the existing Town Meeting format needs to be done using the current format. 

The board chose a weeknight with the hope that it would be convenient for many voters to attend, he noted. 

The board did not yet sign off on the warning for this special meeting. Harvey noted that it would need to be completed at the board’s Oct. 10 meeting in time for it to be posted with adequate notice. 

The board will need to consider what specific questions to present to the voters on Nov. 16. Harvey explained that there are three categories of future voting to cover: voting on the town budget and financial questions, voting on town officers, and voting on all other questions. 

Voters could decide to conduct all of those items of business via Australian ballot or choose to still meet in person for some business and use paper ballots for the rest. For example, Waterbury’s pre-pandemic format relies on an in-person meeting to vote on financial questions and paper ballots for elections of town officers.  

Selectboard Chair Mari Pratt has cast the only “Nay” votes on this question at the past two meetings. She said she doesn’t think a special Town Meeting is needed for voters to consider this issue. “I think we should wait until Town Meeting Day to ask them,” she said. 

If a special meeting was not held, that would mean making the decision on Town Meeting Day in 2023. If voters choose to switch to Australian ballot, that change would go into effect in 2024, she noted.  

The special Duxbury Town Meeting will come a week after the Nov. 8 general election. 

Mud season 2022 brought particularly challenging road conditions to Vermont, including many roads in Duxbury such as Crossett Hill in this photo by Alyssa Mullan.

Adding a discussion on road work 

In addition to the Town Meeting format vote, Selectboard member Richard Charland urged the board to support having a second topic for discussion on Nov. 16 – the need for the town to commit to a long-term plan to rebuild Duxbury’s roads.

“We listen to everybody moan and groan come mud season saying ‘You’ve got to fix it, you’ve got to fix it,’” he said. “I think the people of Duxbury want us to show good faith.” 

Charland said town officials need to begin the conversation with voters to explain the need to commit town finances to what will likely be a multi-million dollar effort to address roads in the coming years. 

Work on town highways and all that involves -- staffing, equipment, materials, etc. --  account for the lion’s share of Duxbury’s annual town budget. Highway expenses for fiscal year 2022 are budgeted at $845,000 of the town’s total budget of just over $1 million.

The board had much discussion on the topic at last week’s meeting with Highway Foreman Brian Gibbs in attendance. Board members and Gibbs are working on compiling a report to outline work needed on town roads to address years of deferred maintenance.

Gibbs said he’s calculated a rough estimate that rebuilding the town’s 33 miles of unpaved roads to current standards would cost about $6.8 million. “And by the time you get to the end of 10 years, it’s time to start over,” he said. 

Selectboad members said they would like to begin with “targeting the worst of the worst” roads. Board member Jamie Ervin said a plan to present to the community could outline several options covering multiple levels of work and costs. 

“It’s not going to be cheap,” Charland said. 

The November special meeting would ask voters only to vote on the Town Meeting format question. The road topic so far would be just a discussion item. 

The board meets next on Oct. 10 when it would need to finalize the Nov. 16 special meeting warning.