[T]he Thom Lauzon era is officially over in Barre. The longtime mayor resigned this week ahead of Town Meeting Day, clearing the way for Lucas Herring to be sworn in as soon as he was elected on Tuesday night.
Herring, a city councilor and IT director for the Vermont Department of Corrections, defeated his only opponent in the mayoral race, fellow councilor Sue Higby, by a vote of 785-561, according to unofficial election results.
Barre voters also approved a 1 percent local tax on rooms, meals and alcohol which will raise an estimated $217,000 for city road paving and sidewalk replacement. The local options tax passed in a narrow vote of 682-660, after Barre residents rejected the measure in the past two elections.
The measure was backed by Lauzon, a prominent developer in the city who served as mayor for 12 years — and leaves office in the wake of claims that he violated Barre’s of conflict of interest policy.
In the mayoral contest, both Herring and Higby campaigned on platforms of economic development and said attracting young families and new investors to Barre were among their top priorities.
But Herring, who was endorsed by Lauzon, stressed that his approach to leadership won’t involve charting a new course for the city. Instead, he intends to follow through with the plans Barre’s City Council and Lauzon have been developing for years.
“I’m not looking to redevelop any new plan, it’s really just taking the ideas that have been here and growing and just change them so that they are more effective in the environment that we have,” Herring said in an interview outside the polls on Tuesday.
Herring said one of his top priorities in office will be using the city’s existing tax stabilization program and tax increment finance district to attract new businesses. He added that he hopes to use tax credits and money from a $35 million housing bond appropriated by the Legislature last year to turn abandoned storefronts on Main Street into new residential and retail spaces.
Herring said the biggest challenge Barre faces is fending off its unfair reputation as a city racked by drug use.
“People like to crown us as a drug haven: ‘Scary Barre.’ But it’s really not true,” he said. “There is a big perception that this is everywhere and it’s rampant, but it’s really in pockets.”
To the extent that it is a problem, Herring plans to tackle the opioid crisis by taking advantage of state’s “hub and spoke” system to make sure people struggling with addiction get access to treatment at designated facilities throughout the state.
Expanding the city’s neighborhood watch program will be another one of his priorities, he said.
While Herring received strong support from voters on Tuesday, many at the polls said they supported Higby, the executive director of Studio Place Arts, because she represented a departure from the status quo.
In an interview on Tuesday, Higby called herself the “change candidate.” In a mayoral debate last month said she wanted to bring “fresh energy” to Barre to spur economic development.
Higby was also a well-known critic of Lauzon’s who called out the former mayor for a lack of transparency and potential personal financial gain related to public plans for a large downtown redevelopment project.
She said that as mayor, she would try to provide incentives for families to move to Barre.
“My instinct is that we represent a really great community to grow a young family in, but that the initial startup cost can be a little astronomical,” she said in an interview.
She added that she would want to help Barre market itself to potential residents and new businesses. The city has already conducted several marketing studies, Higby said, but none of the recommendations the studies produced have been used in successful ad campaigns.
Many of Higby’s ideas focused on more actively involving the public in city politics. For example, she said that she would want to focus on filling several city committees — including the Housing Committee and the Energy Committee — that currently lack appointed city residents.
Barre resident Eric Bachman voted for Higby.
“There’s a lot of things I see that could need improvement,” Bachman said. “Everybody should have a plan to grow some fresh stuff.”
Voters who supported Herring said his background as a state employee and years of experience on the City Council made him uniquely qualified for the mayor’s office.
“He’s out here for the people, he’s here to serve Barre and he has for many years,” said Mike Metcalf. “If he says he’s going to do something, he finds a way.”
Voters had mixed views on the the local options tax. Todd Mugford said the tax was excessive, and after coming up three years in a row, was getting repetitive as a ballot item.
“They just seem to continue to revote everything until they get what they want,” Mugford said. “It’s getting to the point now where, what are they going to tax us for, walking up and down the street?”
Many who supported the measure hoped that adding a new source of revenue for the city could bring down the property tax rate.
Glennis Drew said she hoped it would relieve the property tax on people who most needed a break: low-income homeowners. And she said the tax targeted the right group: younger people who could afford to spend money out on the town.
“I don’t think they would miss [the money] as much as older people who own their homes and are trying to hold onto them,” she said.
