This story by Andrew Martin was published by the News & Citizen on March 14.
[I]t looks like the “town” is here to stay in Morristown, at least for now.
A week after asking voters to weigh in on a nonbinding vote about whether to change the name of their town from Morristown to Morrisville, the Morristown Select Board appears to have crushed any such change.
“I’m old-school; I like Morristown,” board chair Bob Beeman said at a board meeting Monday night. Beeman was curious how much changing the town’s name would cost — expenses for things like signs, documents, promotional expenses. He thinks it would be substantial.
Town finance manager Tina Sweet said making the change could be “a nightmare” in terms of both hassle and costs, and newly elected board vice chair Chris Towne opposed the change, too.
“I am not in favor of moving forward with changing the name,” Towne said. “And, I don’t think there’s a mandate from voters, either.”
In that nonbinding vote on Town Meeting Day, 296 residents favored changing the town’s name to Morrisville —which is the official name of the downtown village in Morristown — while 266 opposed the change.
Those 562 votes were just under 15 percent of the 3,820 registered voters in town, and the 30-vote margin didn’t exactly send a mandate to the board.
And, on Monday night, Town Clerk Sara Haskins said recounts showed that margin was only 28 votes, not 30.
“We were waiting to see what the voters thought, and I’m not sure if the results of that gave us any clear indication of which way to go,” Towne told the News & Citizen last week.
Beeman said several voters told him they were a little confused about what a yes or no vote meant on the ballot question, and thought they’d voted the opposite of what they intended.
Opponents of the change have cited the importance of preserving Morristown history, and Towne pointed out Monday night that the town and village have spent much of the last year promoting the village’s art history walk, and the special history of the village of Morrisville.
Changing the name of the larger town smacks of dismissing the “history of Morristown itself,” he said.
Fire Chief Shawn Goodell pointed out that, in the town report, the fire department is referred to as the Morristown Fire Department, but all the trucks and gear actually say Morrisville Fire Department, a holdover from the days when the department was staffed only by village residents and run by the village government. It’s been a townwide department for decades.
“Should we start changing the name on the trucks?” Goodell asked the select board.
“Yes,” was the resounding answer.
There is some confusion among residents and people in neighboring towns over where Morrisville ends and Morristown begins, but Towne sees a “fun opportunity to educate people” unfamiliar with the difference.
The other three selectboard members, Judy Bickford, Brian Kellogg and Eric Dodge, agreed the name change is a no-go at this time.
“No way,” Dodge said. “I’m not in favor of changing history. It’s been Morristown for 240 years.”
“I prefer it stays the village of Morrisville, and the town of Morristown,” Beeman told the News & Citizen earlier on Monday. “I don’t see that it adds any value for us, I don’t want to see it change.”
“There’s a history with Morristown. I live in Morristown,” Towne emphasized last week, although he did say he’s open to further discussion in the future.
