The meeting started with a moment
of silence for those who had passed away between last year’s town meeting and this
year followed by the pledge of allegiance. Next the town awarded a plaque to
Norman Messier who was serving out his last town meeting as moderator.
After about twenty minutes the
reading of each article began. Every article, including the school board and
the highway report articles were passed with opposition on a few of the issues.
Of the articles that were argued, article 6,
which proposed to give $1,000 to the Catamount Art Theater in St. Johnsbury, was
the most fought over. Arguments about taking the money from the property
taxes of residents resulted in having an in-meeting ballot. This ballot ended in the article being passed with 52 votes yes and 33 votes no.
Some of the other articles that were met with opposition include article 8, which proposed to appropriate $5,000 to the Fairbanks Museum, and article 16, which proposed to appropriate $6,440.63 to Rural Community Transportation. While passed, article 16 was amended to eliminate the 63 cents from the appropriation.
The articles that were the heavy hitters were 23 through 25, which dealt with the repeal of a business tax, which would then be put on to the property taxes of the town. The initial proposal was in article 23 while further division of taxes were proposed in the following two articles. If article 23 was passed, article 24 was there to make sure that within the next year the business tax would be phased out. If 24 was not passed then article 25 was to take a one year plan and turn it in to a three year plan to phase out the tax. With 23 and 24 passed, article 25 was passed over (a video of article 24 is below this post).
The articles that were the heavy hitters were 23 through 25, which dealt with the repeal of a business tax, which would then be put on to the property taxes of the town. The initial proposal was in article 23 while further division of taxes were proposed in the following two articles. If article 23 was passed, article 24 was there to make sure that within the next year the business tax would be phased out. If 24 was not passed then article 25 was to take a one year plan and turn it in to a three year plan to phase out the tax. With 23 and 24 passed, article 25 was passed over (a video of article 24 is below this post).
After the general town meeting was finished the school board presented their budget and numbers for the year. Some of these proposals included an addition of a special education teacher at the town school, which would increase the budget by just over $72,000, and a a general increase for elementary salary/benefits by about $13,000. The schools boards budget was one of the issues in the Australian ballot that was held and with a 232 "yes" and 113 "no" turn out, passed.Two other ballot results were fairly notable. First was the passing of the NEK Waste Management budget of $631,300 with 295 votes "yes" and 51 votes "no". The second was the only contested race between selectman candidates Kevin Calkins and David Dill. Dill beat Calkins with 249 votes to 98 votes.
