Vermont Town Meeting usually unfolds during March maple sugaring and mud season. But more than 10% of the state’s 246 municipalities will decide on local leaders, spending and special articles this spring amid April showers and May and June flowers.
For a second year, the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted nearly 30 communities to reschedule proceedings until it is warm enough to open windows or move outdoors.
Kirby, for example, gaveled in its annual town hall meeting on March 1, when John McClaughry won re-election as moderator for the 56th time (a yet-to-be-disproven state record). The session then adjourned until its 575 residents can swing the doors wide May 7 to figuratively and literally air things out.
All of Vermont’s 28 cities and towns with 5,000 or more residents stuck to their usual March voting schedules to ask for a collective $100 million in special bond requests above and beyond their regular budgets. But most smaller communities with spring dates are asking for much less.
Jamaica, population 1,005, is scheduled to meet April 2 to consider spending $25,000 for a town administrator and joining about 20 other Vermont municipalities in assessing a 1% local option sales tax.
“Nothing too exciting, but different for us!” Jamaica Town Clerk Sara Wiswall said of the agenda.
Halifax, population 771, postponed its gathering to May 3, only to hear from locals they’d rather vote that day by ballot on such questions as whether to reduce the selectboard from five members to three.
Ripton, population 739, is set to hold a meeting May 9 and a ballot vote on local leaders May 10, with the agenda to be finalized this week.
“We may have a question about purchasing road equipment,” said Alison Joseph Dickinson, Ripton’s town administrator, clerk and lister. “The town does not currently own any equipment or have a place for it.”
Communities had hoped to return to business as usual earlier this year before the state’s coronavirus cases hit record highs with the arrival of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
“The citizens of Vermont should be able to protect their health, safety, and welfare,” said a resulting temporary state law allowing changes, “while also continuing to exercise their right to participate in annual municipal meetings.”
Almost 75% of the state’s 246 municipalities replaced shoulder-to-shoulder decision-making with mailable ballots this month, while about 40 towns chose to hold some sort of gathering on or around the first Tuesday in March.
Several communities opting for spring meetings are scheduling them outside the box. Sheffield, population 682, will gather May 17 under a tent beside its municipal building, while Tunbridge, population 1,337, is set to meet May 21 at its World’s Fair grounds.
Not all municipalities and their school districts are voting on the same day or in the same way.
Vernon, population 2,192, cast ballots on local leaders, its school budget and two marijuana questions March 1 and is scheduled to consider the rest of its agenda at an outdoor meeting May 1.
Westminster, population 3,016, voted on some articles March 1 and is set to decide the rest at a meeting April 30, either inside a bay of its fire station or in a backyard across the street, depending on the weather.
As a result, election officials are urging Vermonters to check both the timing of all municipal and school meetings and votes and whether they have to request an absentee ballot or will receive one automatically.
Towns postponing proceedings until spring include Baltimore (June 7), Barnet (April 25), Belvidere (June 7), Brookfield (May 21), Corinth (May 17), Dover (May 17), Granville (May 17), Halifax (May 3), Holland (May 21), Jamaica (April 2), Kirby (May 7), Londonderry (April 30), Lowell (May 21), Ludlow (April 4-5), Pittsfield (May 3), Ripton (May 9-10), Sheffield (May 17), Stannard (May 10), St. George (April 30), Sudbury (June 4), Tunbridge (May 21), Vernon (May 1), Vershire (May 22), Wardsboro (May 21), Waterford (April 5), Waterville (June 7), Westminster (April 30) and Weston (April 5).
