Tunbridge Town Meeting Day 2007 …
Posted by Rick & Sarah - 07/03/07 at 09:03:43 am
Last year we attended Town Meeting Day in Tunbridge, even though we hadn’t closed on our house yet. We knew we couldn’t vote, but we wanted to go anyway to see how our adopted town worked. We learned a great deal about our town and our neighbors last year, and came away feeling that we not only made the correct decision about the house we bought, but that we had lucked into a great town.
Since last year’s town meeting we have made many efforts to get involved. Sarah volunteered to fill one of the vacant auditors positions. Our town usually has three auditors, but Jim Wick had been working on his own the previous year, so he was very happy to welcome Sarah. After a trial period Sarah was sworn in as an auditor last year. She is up for re-election in 2009. Thankfully, the town elected another auditor this year to join Sarah and Jim since Jim is hoping to step down at the end of his term.
Last year’s town meeting ran very smoothly and—including the lunch break—only took about five hours. None of the elected positions were being challenged either, so we had no need to go to a paper ballot. Every incumbent was renominated, and every incumbent was reelected by a voice vote. Neither of us even recall hearing any nay votes.
This year there was some concern that things might get a bit heated. Since last year’s meeting, mold had been discovered in the town hall and the town offices. The mold was so bad that our Town Clerk had become ill. The Selectboard picked an abatement company, and the offices and the town hall were closed while the work was done. But the abatement wasn’t done well, costs and time on the project escalated, and apparently the work was started before a contract had been signed. In a nutshell, the job appeared to have been mishandled and a few weeks before this year’s town meeting one of our select board members (rightfully, in our minds) resigned over the matter.
We’d rather not go into too much detail, and this post is not intended to air dirty laundry or place any blame. In fact, overall, we believe the Selectboard, the Town Clerk, and the citizenry did a great job of handling what was a very difficult situation.
Below is a summary of the 17 articles the Town of Tunbridge discussed and decided at this year’s Town Meeting:
- We reelected Euclid Farnham as our Moderator.
- We reelected Wendy McCullough as our Town Clerk.
- We reelected Ann Mallary as our Treasurer.
- We listened to and approved all of the Town Officer’s Reports.
- We agreed to pay our taxes on or before November 1, 2007 and interest on delinquent taxes.
- We approved the budgets of the Selectboard and Highway Department.
- We agreed to allow the Selectboard to borrow money as needed for current expenses in anticipation of taxes.
- We approved the budget for the Tunbridge Volunteer Fire Department.
- We approved a sum of money to support the First Branch Ambulance operating budget.
- After much polite, yet enthusiastic, debate we approved a measure to use remaining funds in the Capital Improvement fund to help defray some of the remaining costs of the mold abatement project at the Town Hall and Town Offices.
- We approved the appropriation of money for the Capital Improvement Fund for future Town Building Capital Improvements.
- After a presentation by one of the Cemetery Commissioners, we approved money for a reserve fund for a new cemetery on land owned by Tunbridge.
- After some debate—and an attempt to introduce an amendment to cut the amount in half—we approved the allocation of money to finance the purchase of a new tanker truck for the Tunbridge Volunteer Fire Department.
- We approved a tax exemption for the Tunbridge Volunteer Fire Department and the Tunbridge Grange for the next five years.
- We approved roughly $8,000 in support money to a number of organizations including: Central Vermont Adult Education, Central Vermont Council on Aging, Clara Martin, Central Vermont Community Action, Chelsea Senior Center, Green Up, Kid’s Place, Orange County Court Diversion, Safe-line, Upper Valley Services, Vermont Association for the Blind, Vermont Center for Independent Living, and the Vermont-New Hampshire Visiting Nurses Association.
- We elected a new Selectboard member (Tim Wolfe), which required two ballots. With one exception, we reelected all other elected positions without contesting. The exception was a member of the Library Trustees who declined nomination and nominated his successor. The nominated successor was elected.
- The last article of business was “other nonbinding business” where the town heard from a variety of people, including announcements of fundraising dinners for school trips; information on organizations working to reduce energy use and global warming; expressions of thanks to various people for their hard work—including a round of applause for the Selectboard member who had resigned, but who had not attended this year’s meeting. The town also voice voted on a nonbinding resolution to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The vote was relatively close, but the ayes had it. Lastly we heard from our state representative, David Ainsworth, who spoke briefly about what was happening in Montpelier, and who encouraged people to contact him with any concerns they had.
We also had a lovely lunch sponsored by the Friends of the Tunbridge library, which included meat and vegetarian lasagna, a salad bar and more pie than any town could have possibly eaten in one sitting; although a neighbor kid announced to Rick that in addition to eating his lunch he had eaten 4 pieces of pie. Rick congratulated him and told him he hoped he didn’t get sick in his mom’s car on the way home. At lunch we got to meet one of our Cemetery Commissioners, Floyd McPhetres, and his lovely wife Eloise. Floyd is probably in his late 80s and has lived in town all his life. He lives in a house next to the one where he was born. Another woman who ate with us, Mary, was a student of Floyd’s when he taught high school many years ago.
The entire meeting, including lunch, lasted about four and a half hours, but went by very quickly. It was great to see so many of the people we have gotten to know over the first year we have lived in this great town, and it was nice to make new acquaintances.
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On Being Pre-Thankful …
Posted by Rick & Sarah - 23/11/05 at 08:11:18 am
This past weekend our good friends, Josh and Lori, had what was billed as a Pre-Thanksgiving potluck party at their lovely home in Washington, D.C. Since we had already made the decision to not travel on Thanksgiving proper, and we knew that we were having guests for the winter holiday, we decided this was the perfect opportunity to get away for a long weekend. Not only would we get to see most of our favorite friends because of the party, but we wouldn’t have to travel on the worst bloody flying days of the year. Josh and Lori were also very sweet to let us stay with them.
Another plus was that we found an excellent price on a flight on Southwest. The minus was that we had to fly out of Manchester Airport (New Hampshire) to catch it. One hundred thirty-five miles from Montpelier. Oh, and it was an 8:50 a.m. flight, which meant we had to be on the road by 5:30 a.m., at latest. Did we mention that it snowed the night before, and that the roads were icy? We didn’t let these things get in our way though. While we had to drive slower than the speed limit for the first part of the trip, we were able to make up the time once we got to New Hampshire, where the roads were significantly drier.
The rest of the trip, thankfully, went very smoothly.
Continue reading ‘On Being Pre-Thankful …’
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Spring is Sprung! …
Posted by Rick & Sarah - 24/04/05 at 08:04:24 pm
We’ve been busy. Busy with work, extra work, travels, The Plan, dog(s), friends, and all the other joys that life has to offer. And in case you hadn’t noticed, we haven’t been that great about updating. But since we had time to put in our garden on Sunday, we thought we’d share. It doesn’t look like much now, but there’s here’s a huge batch of garlic, some broccoli, two types of lettuce, chard, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a variety of herbs. The only thing missing is the peppers section, which will be put in place in a few weeks, after it warms up. We’re hoping the garden won’t take too much supervision this year….as long as we can keep Haley out of it.
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No Go on Pogo …
Posted by Rick & Sarah - 19/04/05 at 12:04:56 pmWe have been hinting to many of our friends and family that we might be bringing a second dog home this past weekend. Unfortunately, it ends up that “Pogo” won’t be coming to live with us after all. It seems that Pogo wasn’t the same dog that he presented himself to be the 2 times we visited with him at the Washington Humane Society. When we met him the first time he was quiet and relaxed and shared his cage politely with Bruna the Chihuahua. When we met him the second time, we had Haley with us, and he was polite, quiet and indifferent to Haley, and we took this as a good sign. When we picked him up on Sunday to take him home, he greeted us at the Humane Society with energy and enthusiasm we had not seen in the dog before. That was fine. But when we got home, he was extremely aggressive with our neighbours’ dogs and attacked Haley when we re-introduced them on neutral territory. If he had shown this side of himself when we brought Haley to meet him, we would not have taken him home. And so, it was with great sadness that we had to bring Pogo back to the Humane Society.
When we brought him back, the staff saw what we did, as Pogo lunged and barked at every animal in the place. The staff said we made the right decision and that perhaps Pogo needs to be an only dog. He really is a sweetie, but he wasn’t exactly the companion animal we were hoping to find for our little girl.
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Haley Makes a Snowman …
Posted by Rick & Sarah - 22/01/05 at 01:01:05 pmWhile this is the first real snow storm of the season, we got our first snow (an inch or so) earlier in the week. Haley wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she seems to have enjoyed herself (Note: Sound & Quicktime video: 6MB).
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