Today’s headlines scream about climate change, terrorist threats and virulent viruses. But flip through most any Vermont town meeting report during this municipal voting season and you’ll find local leaders united in their complaints about what they consider a less publicized but more persistent challenge.
“During the past year,” begins the Select Board in Calais, population 1,607, “we have dealt with the usual items including, but not limited to, roads, signage, bridges and culverts, animal control and complaints, zoning issues and violations, curb cut and right-of-way applications, liquor licenses, town employee benefits, utility line placements, grants, bridge projects, ordinances, review of the budget …”
And, finally, perhaps the peskiest of problems: all those lawmakers in Montpelier churning out “more complex statutory and regulatory requirements.”
“The Town of Westminster has had a very busy year,” its own Select Board writes, “with discussions about trash, a quarry, real estate, hiring an architect for the Town Hall renovations and, of course, budgets. The state of Vermont added a substantial amount of complications this past year to our small town, which also added to our workload.”
Local leaders in Leicester, population 1,100, confirm: “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Select Board works hard to deal with the financial impact of legislative mandates and related rising costs.”
From northernmost Alburgh to southernmost Vernon, officials who run Vermont’s 246 cities and towns can cite a laundry list of examples, according to a review of nearly 150 annual reports on file at the secretary of state’s office.
‘The bane of existence’
Many start with Vermont’s new universal recycling law, Act 148 or, as the Select Board in Benson calls it, “the bane of existence of any small town.” It requires people to pay for waste removal based on volume or weight in hopes of encouraging more recycling.
“Because of Act 148,” write local leaders in Athens, population 442, “we had to implement a ‘pay as you throw’ system for trash pickup. The town purchased trash bags, which are sold both at the town office and D&R General Store for $3 each. Also, it has become necessary to join a solid waste management district. A state employee commented that the town was ‘rogue’ for not having joined in the past.”
In the present, it’s now costing Athens a $3,000 membership fee and $7-per-ton surcharge to join 13 other communities in the Southern Windsor/Windham Counties Solid Waste Management District.
Many towns also want to trash the recently adopted education governance law, Act 46.
“Simply put, Act 46 is legislation that passed in the spring of 2015 that turns supervisory unions (many boards and many budgets) into supervisory districts (like a Burlington, for example) where all schools are unified in a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 structure governed by one board and one budget,” write officials of the Washington West Supervisory Union, which serves Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waterbury, Waitsfield and Warren.
“Act 46 is law and by 2019 all supervisory unions will be merged in some way, either voluntarily or by the authority of the State Board of Education,” Washington West officials continue. Act 46 allows supervisory unions “to design mergers now (the accelerated merger process) and take advantage of tax incentives (the carrot) that won’t be available should we decide to take the ‘wait and see’ approach (the stick). We can do it for ourselves now or let the state do it to us later.”
(In Washington West’s case, it has tentatively scheduled a resident vote on options for May.)
Local school districts also are juggling the state’s new Act 166, which, starting July 1, will require universal access to 10 hours a week of publicly funded pre-kindergarten for children ages 3 to 5.
“Much of the funding for our pre-kindergarten program had been made available through federal grants,” writes Donald Van Nostrand, superintendent of the Orleans Central Supervisory Union serving Albany, Barton, Brownington, Glover, Irasburg, Orleans and Westmore. “This new legislation will unfortunately force a large shift of funds to local budgets.”
‘Unanswered questions’
That’s not the only local complaint about changes in state support.
“One of the most time-consuming items that has been added to the list of responsibilities for town government is the new requirement that certain state funds that were automatically sent to towns in the past must now be applied for via a grant application process,” writes the governing board in Townshend, population 1,232. “All of this ‘paperwork’ is actually done via the Internet with multiple restrictions, passwords and user names necessary just to log into the site.”
“With town government changing every March when a new Select Board is elected, keeping track of all of this trivial information is difficult at best,” Townshend officials continue. “The state does not seem to realize that the Select Board chairman from last year’s filing may not be the same person with the same password the following year. This has led to much frustration and many hours on the telephone with different state individuals just to get personal information reset so the new user may gain the necessary access.”
Many communities are starting to take action on the issues that concern them. The town of Chelsea will consider joining about 70 others that have approved a Rutland Town Select Board resolution seeking more municipal say in the Vermont Public Service Board’s review of renewable power projects.
“It is resolved,” the Chelsea ballot item says in part, “to instruct state representatives and senators to develop amendments to the statutes that concern the siting and approval of renewable energy projects and to the procedures of the PSB in order to ensure that Vermont municipalities have a more meaningful role in the process and to require compliance with appropriately developed municipal siting standards.”
Adds the board in Danville, which has approved the resolution: “While we are not stating that we are adamantly opposed to this type of alternative energy, we are quite sure that we have unanswered questions. And the one question that keeps surfacing is: At what point should being a leader on the alternative energy front take a back seat to maintaining the magnificent beauty and potential farm crops of our rural countryside?”
Many towns also are expressing concerns about new clean water rules under Act 64, which the Westminster Select Board warns “is just getting started and will be impacting our budget for years to come.”
“This act establishes water quality requirements that will influence how towns will address storm water runoff and will determine how we manage our roads in the future,” the Leicester board writes. “Some components of the act have yet to be developed. We do know that, starting next year, there will be a $400 application fee and a $2,000 permit fee to be paid to the state annually.”
Leicester leaders also note the state is seeking changes to several local culverts, including one near the town shed.
“Preliminary figures for the replacement of that culvert have an expected cost of over $260,000, which is about what is spent annually to maintain all the roads in town,” they write. “We are responsible for up to 20 percent of the total cost.”
‘A massive undertaking’
Legislative changes to Vermont’s open meeting law have required many towns to revamp how they inform residents of municipal matters.
“We had to rework the town’s website (corinthvt.org),” write local leaders in Corinth, population 1,367. “Now agendas and minutes of all town boards and commissions are posted on the town website. In addition, they are posted on the bulletin board on the Town Hall porch, at the transfer station, and at the East Corinth General Store.”
The Vermont secretary of state’s rollout of an online voter registration and elections management system (“a massive undertaking,” Danville officials note) has called for town clerks and support staff to attend four-day trainings (at such places as Manchester’s Equinox Resort and Killington’s Grand Hotel, which perhaps explains why few reports include much complaint.)
The town of Worcester, population 998, is finding the state infiltrating seemingly everywhere.
“A routine inspection of the town hall revealed that the antifreeze in the sprinkler system needed to be replaced because it only tested for 10 degrees below zero,” the Select Board there writes. “It was also pointed out that by the year 2020 the entire sprinkler system would have to be changed to a dry sprinkler system as per state law changes.”
Worcester, as a result, is working on a plan for town meeting 2017.
“New state regulations coming soon will mean that the road commissioner will need to spend more time on administrative duties and less time working on the roads,” the Worcester board continues. “And the Highway Department has been put on notice that additional personnel are needed to avoid fines, penalties and possible loss of state aid. The town must have a policy in place that at least two employees need to be in attendance when performing any duties for the town or face serious liability issues. Also we have been warned road repairs impeding traffic need two traffic control people and if we fail to comply we could end up like other towns already fined $5,000 each time they are caught.”
‘We only ask you …’
Despite all the frustration, some towns are finding that state demands have silver linings.
Notes the Select Board in Peacham, population 732: “When roads and ditches are being worked on, the road crew has been trying as often as possible to get close to state standards. This may mean some changes to the roads and ditches as things go forward but it is important to do so as the amount of money we get from the state is based on whether or not we comply with their standards.”
And local leaders in Albany, population 190: “We have outfitted the garage with Internet and a computer for Rodney due to all the paperwork that needs to be filled out online. It also enables him to research parts for the trucks and gives him access to various reference manuals that the state has online to help him do his job better.”
A few municipalities actually appreciate the state.
“We in Waterbury are very pleased to welcome all of the state employees, some of them longtime friends and neighbors, to town,” writes the municipal manager of the home of a government office complex that was rebuilt and recently reopened after 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene. “We look forward to seeing them on our streets, in our shops, businesses and restaurants.”
And most communities, for all their complaints, want to keep things civil.
“One other concern the Select Board wanted to address is an increasing level of verbal abuse directed at town employees and elected/appointed officials,” local leaders write in Woodbury, population 906. “If there is something you don’t like about the ways things are being done, we would hope you would let us know. We only ask you do so in a respectful manner that invites a conversation, not a confrontation.”
