ESSEX JUNCTION — A recently completed survey of Essex town and Essex Junction residents found residents want more information about what a merger of the two local governments would look like.
The village and town are expected vote on the issue in November 2020.
Conducted by KSV, a marketing and advertising firm, the survey was in the field between Sept. 16 and Oct. 20 and gathered 844 responses, in a community of over 21,000 residents.
Essex Junction is a village within the town of Essex, and the population is almost evenly split between them.
“The intention of all this information is to provide you all with a pulse check of what Essex residents from across the community think about this topic,” Dave Treston from KSV told a joint meeting of the town Selectboard and the village Board of Trustees Tuesday night, along with about a dozen residents who attended.
While 48.5% of respondents were in favor, 75% believe the town would have a stronger sense of community post-merger. Some 33.4% of respondents are currently against a merger and the remaining 18.1% were undecided.
Responses from the town of Essex made up 52.5% of the total, with the remainder coming from Essex Junction.
The responses were split by voting district. In Essex Junction — District 8-2 — 65% of respondents favor the merger. Residents in District 8-3, the northern part of town, only 20.6% are in favor of the merger, while responses from District 8-1 are 44.3% in favor.
Residents who oppose the merger say they are concerned about taxes, representation and access to municipal services.
“It has been stated in public meetings and on the survey itself that a merger would likely result in an increase tax rate for TOV [Town Outside Village] residents,” the survey report says.
The two municipalities are no stranger to this merger question. It was on the ballot in 2006, where it passed, 4,376 to 4,167. However, a petition was submitted against the merger and a revote ultimately failed, 2,890 to 2,703.
The survey found that residents who have lived in Essex for more than 10 years are less likely to support a merger, with the opposite being found for residents of less than 10 years.
If the merger were to pass in November, a question on the survey asked residents what kind of local government they would like to see.
The results found that most residents, particularly those from the village, would favor a district or ward based model, with 81.4% of those in favor saying it will lead to better representation across the community.
Residents opposed to a district or ward system felt as though some parts would be represented more strongly than others and end up further dividing the community.
The question of identity and keeping parts of the rural town was posed to survey takers as well, where it was found that nine out of 10 respondents feel the town should maintain some of its rural character.
Board of Trustees President Andrew Brown addressed allegations that some residents submitted the survey more than once.
“It has come to the attention of some board members, myself included, that one or more members of our community took an extremely unethical step in an attempt to skew the results of the most recent survey,” Brown said, reading from a prepared statement.
While the survey did not ask for identifying information, like name and address, KSV could see the IP addresses of respondents who answered more than once. Treston assured the board the results are accurate, as they closely monitored the results from each response, but they did not eliminate duplicates from the same IP address as a likely scenario was people in the same house or at the same employer completing the survey with different devices while on the same internet connection.
Only three of the approximately dozen people in attendance asked questions.
Former Selectboard member Irene Wrenner asked the board if any control factors were in place to ensure the survey takers were from Essex and of legal voting age.
“I think the answer there is no,” Selectboard Vice Chair Max Levy said. “Trust was the name of the game.”
“With all respect, I think it’s very difficult to count on trust,” Wrenner replied.
At a previous meeting, Wrenner belted out a parody of Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” she dubbed “Merger Breath” in opposition to the proposal.
The next step, as recommended by Treston, was to create an “outline of a timeline” for the process.
While the survey is not indicative of what a merger plan may actually look like, Treston reiterated multiple times that voters want more clarity regardless.
Treston recommended hosting more listening sessions for residents to share their concerns and having more outreach through social media, Front Porch Forum, emails and letters to residents.
“They want you to reach out to them as opposed to having the onus be on them to find information for themselves,” Treston said.
Treston said this communication is more important now than previous years because of a “contentious election coming up on the national level.”
The Governance Subcommittee is meeting Wednesday night to work towards that timeline.
