Voters passed the first eight articles on the warning with little discussion, but when it came to Article 9, the summer road budget, Lind Lane resident Gerry Lind moved that the town “raise zero dollars.” Lind said the town shouldn’t raise any money until there was an operational plan and clear job descriptions and a clear chain of command in place for the highway department.
Sherrie Lind said their road wasn’t plowed for an entire day after one of the recent storms that dumped nearly five feet of heavy, wet snow on Searsburg. Gerry Lind said it wasn’t until selectboard member Tony Kilbride, who does not work for the town highway department, appeared in the town truck, at about 1:45 am, that their road was opened up. “There’s no excuse,” Lind said. “The town has six miles of road!”
Board member Ron Lemaire said there were plans and procedures in place, and they were followed. Both of the town’s two highway department employees were put on probation, board members later said. Through the discussion between residents and board members, it finally came out that the road foreman, Alan Bartlett, was not at work on one of the nights during the storm, as he had elected to go to a meeting outside of town. The department’s only other employee, Pete Janovsky Jr., was left on his own. Janovsky said the roads had been left unplowed too long, the equipment was breaking, and he got fed up. “So I quit,” he said. Janovsky later agreed to return to his employment on a probationary basis.
“You quit right in the middle of the first big storm,” said selectboard chair Walt Kenney.
“I was out there plowing my butt off,” Janovsky said.
Kilbride said he got involved after he found Bartlett walking along Route 9 late that night. While plowing Somerset Road, the truck had gone off the road and gotten stuck. Kilbride and Bartlett got the grader at the town garage and used it to recover the town truck. “I went down and plowed Lind Lane while he took the grader back,” Kilbride explained.
Lemaire said the matter was the subject of an executive session with both of the employees. He said he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, divulge what was discussed, but that it was a matter of public record that the two employees were on probation. Lemaire reminded voters that the previous road foreman, Pete Janovsky Sr., had more than 26 years experience taking care of Searsburg’s roads, and that they should give Bartlett room to make a few mistakes and learn. “This is a hard town to work with,” Lemaire said. “Anything he does wrong now is going to show, and anything he does right is not going to show. If you don’t like what this selectboard is doing, tomorrow (Tuesday) you can vote new people in, but we’re not getting rid of our road crew this winter or none of the roads are going to get plowed.”
But Bill Hurley, along with several other residents, expressed their dissatisfaction that Pete Janovsky Jr. had been passed over for the foreman’s position after his father left. “I’ve been out there at 4 am or 5 am and Pete’s always out there working hard,” Hurley said. “I don’t blame him for quitting, I would have quit, too, if you had done that to me.” Board member Sandy Gaszek said the town advertised the position and interviewed several candidates, including Janovsky.
After several more assurances that the board had an operational plan, Lind withdrew his motion, and voters passed a $6,000 summer road budget under Article 9, and approved a winter road budget of $59,000 under Article 10.
When voters got to Article 17, to approve the town’s total budget of $209,500, former selectboard member Stan Florence noted that the road budgets that had already been discussed and approved were included in the budget figure under Article 17. “We’ve already raised and appropriated the highway money, we can’t go and approve the same money twice,” he said. After a murmur of disagreement from the board, Florence asked “Didn’t anyone else hear us approve the highway money?”
Lemaire explained that articles 9, 10, and 17 were written the same way every year. The reason for voting the summer and winter highway budgets separately, he said, was so that the town could receive FEMA money in the event of a disaster such as last year’s ice storm.
Under Article 18, nonbinding business, Hurley raised several questions about the town’s battle over its recent revaluation. The new appraisal doubled the town’s grand list, but a number of residents cried “foul,” saying their properties were unfairly valued. The town’s common level of appraisal, at about 133%, and the coefficient of dispersion, at 36%, both suggest the appraisals are out of whack. Hurley asked what progress had been made by listers “so that we are all treated fairly under this ridiculous appraisal.”
Lister Josie Kilbride said the board of listers was working with the state to determine what was wrong, and how it might be adjusted without a new appraisal.
In school district matters, voters passed a $269,478 school budget, but not without the requisite grumbling about state education funding. Moderator and school board member Gary Sage noted that, despite Searsburg’s modest spending and low per-pupil cost of $9,176, Searsburg sends more than $460,000 to Montpelier each year. Carlton “Toby” Munsill asked if the town could spend more of its $460,000 on Searsburg students without increasing their overall outlay. “Or would that put us in the penalty?” Munsill asked.
Searsburg is more than $5,000 under Act 68’s penalty threshold of $14,549 this year, but Sage said that any increase in the town’s expenditure wouldn’t be taken out of the $460,000 already sent to the state, it would only increase the tax burden. Sage said he had spent the day researching the things that have the most influence on the tax rate. “I wanted to puke when I got done,” he said, “but the bottom line is that we don’t control a thing except about $20,000 in transportation. If you cut your budget, they’d find a way to take it.” Sage reminded voters that the town recently bought laptops for each of the town’s students – not because they were flush with cash, but because the state threatened to take an $87,000 surplus if it wasn’t expended. “There’s not really much we can do,” he said.
Searsburg elects school district officers from the floor, and Sage was nominated and elected for another term as moderator. Walt Kenney and Lisa Munsill were nominated for school director and Kenney, the incumbent, was returned to office with a show of hands. Even Munsill, perhaps not thrilled with the prospect of serving on the board, raised her hand to vote for Kenney. In Australian ballot voting on Tuesday, Sage was re-elected as town moderator with 48 votes, Josie Kilbride will remain the town clerk with 48 votes, Tony Kilbride fought off a challenge by Sage for his three-year seat on the selectboard 31 to 19, Gerry DeGray won a two-year seat on the board with 37 votes compared to Bill Hurley’s 14, John Kilbride was elected constable with 46 votes, Tina Reynolds was elected to the board of listers with 50 votes, Sherrie Lind was elected auditor with 52 votes, Josie Kilbride will remain treasurer with 31 votes to Rosemarie Blair’s 22 votes, Derick Lind will return as delinquent tax collector with 50 votes, Rosemarie Blair was elected grand juror with 41 votes, and Chris Reynolds was a successful write-in for town agent. Donna Roy received enough write-in votes to serve as auditor, but she declined the position, which remains open.
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