Wait, What happened?

                  At town meeting there are usually a lot of numbers and names being spoken. Many nominations, motions, and seconds are being called on the floor. But most of the time many people do not know what number goes with what budget and which person goes with what position. This small summary will explain the specifics of what happened at the Barnet town meeting. Just in case you missed it.

                At the school district meeting the school approved a $4.2 million dollar school budget. Voters approved a transition of $70,000 that was in the tuition budget to the school budget. This helped reduce school expenses. The school budget is $10,000 less than last year and four positions were being cut. But the tax rate would increase by 7.5 cents. Salaries and benefits are what will be affected by this budget's deficit.

             A $1 million dollar budget was approved for the town and over $76,000 was also allowed to be appropriated to special services. The overall meeting lasted a little over three hours. The municipal budget ($581,696) and highway budget ($491,050) were passed.

           Election Results
           (Re-Elected)
           Moderator: Dennis McLam
           School Directors: Shannon LaRocque / Lori Werdenschlag
           Selectmen: Jeremy Roberts
           Delinquent Tax Collector: Lisa Bowden
           Grand Juror: Michael Bergeron
           Town Agent: Jay Abramson
           Trustee of Public Funds: Bill Graves

           (Newly Elected)
           Lister: Dave Warden
           Budget Committee: Andrew Mosedale / Ben Gates
           Library Trustee: Sarah Walls
     
     
       More details and minutes of the town meeting can be available by calling the Town Clerk's Office.
         

A recap of 2009 by the Selectmen

[Town of Barnet]

          It was a transition year as Benjamin Heisholt took his first year in office as town clerk. In a report by the Selectmen they wrote about the highlights and challenges of what happened in Barnet this past year.

    1.) Highway crew member Thomas Gould suffered a serious accident in March. Theresa Conant helped in his life-saving care miracle.

    2.) Paving Projects: Barnet Center Road

                                     Town Forest Road

                                     Peacham-Groton Road

    3.) Town and School Board helped with accommodating better parking and traffic flow at school. Widening KID Row, which many were concerned with the traffic of drop-off and pick-up of students.

    4.) Road crew replaced 15 culverts and added outflow sections to others. NVDA Update: Brush cut Cloud Brook, Garland Hill, Campers Lane, Keyser Hill, Bunnell Lane, Little Scotland Roads

    5.) A new freightliner six wheel dump truck was purchased.

    6.) Town is working with the University of Vermont to remove stoplogs from the dam at Harvey's Lake.  A in depth project is underway to undestand the conditions of the dam.

    7.) New town garage. State Inspectors were impressed with the building. The project was paid through a savings plan by the town, without bond or grant money.

    The Selectboard was confident about the Town's financial position in the tough economy.

             

What happened at Town Meeting?

[Town Clerk: Benjamin Heisholt is looking over his notes]

         It can be debated whether Town Meeting day is an antiquated form of government. But in Vermont, town meeting day is still a stronghold for direct democracy. An example of this democracy in action was at the Barnet town meeting.

The atmosphere was bright and conversational as the residents of Barnet gathered into the school gym for their annual town meeting. The Selectboard took their places on the stage and residents with their town warning and annual reports sat in their seats waiting for the meeting to start.

The school’s kitchen filled the air with food as the cooks were preparing for lunch. The meeting began at eleven a.m. and Theodore Faris, Chair of the selectboard addressed the issues on the warning. Many of the action items had to deal with approving appropriation of money to various services and elections for a moderator and town officials. The Lake Harvey Association was a group among the crowd that was asking the town of Barnet to appropriate a sum of $10,000 to use for a boat wash program (Article 11). The purpose of this program, according to Jan Sherman president of the Association was to prevent milfoil and other invasive species at Harvey’s lake. The lake is one of the town’s major water resources and to protect it is important to the community. The voters approved the article with the old fashion yay or nay vote. The town used the Australian ballot to vote on the waste district budget. The results were 101 votes in favor of the budget and 15 votes against.

The town meeting operated smoothly and residents were attentive and questioned any articles that they did not understand. For the most part the meeting went by in a timely fashion. But it was at the school district meeting where many concerns were raised.

The issue was deciding whether to transfer $70,000 from the school fund reserved for tuition to the 2011 fiscal year budget. Shannon Larocque a school board director, said it was because the money that was reserved for high school tuition had not been used in the last years. The board requested it to be allocated in the school budget. The voters approved the allocation but even with the transfer of money the expenditure budget was still down compared to last year. The voters were concerned programs were going to be cut because of this slight deficit. The expenditure budget right now is above 4.2 million dollars. Larocque said that they were cutting three positions, but assured the residents that they were cutting the bare minimum. Both the school and the town boards were cooperative and listened to any of the concerns of the people. When the town meeting adjourned for lunch the room was loud again. Looking around the room anyone could see that these local people care about their town and how it is governed.

Town Meeting Preview

[courtesy of BarnetVT.org]

Barnet Town Meeting - Top Issues:

[What the voters of Barnet will talk about...]

-Elect Moderator and other Town Officers

-Article 8: Appropriate the sum of $7,160 to the CALEX Ambulance Service

-Article 11: Appropriate the sum of $10,000 to the Lake Harvey Association

-Budgeting and Appropriation

-School District Meeting: Decide to authorize the Barnet School Board to transfer $70,000 from the fund balance reserved for tuition to the FY2011 Budget

  

[courtesy of vtliving.com]

     What's in your Town Report?

 -General Town Information

-Reports of Town Officers, Boards, Organizations & Events

-Town Financial Reports

-School Administration Reports

-School District Financial Reports

-Reports of Other Recipients of Town Funds

-Reports of Organizations Not Receiving Town Funds

-Real Estate Transactions

-Vital Records Reports

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