[T]he good news: Many of Vermont’s 246 localities are aiming to save money and paper by switching from mass-mailing annual town meeting reports to posting more information online.
And the bad: That won’t help residents in the nearly 40 communities that don’t have some sort of municipal website.
Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Georgia, Vernon and Weathersfield are just six of a rising number of Vermont cities and towns seeking to save printing and postage costs by asking residents to consider advance “notice of availability” of reports through postcards, newspaper ads or bulletin boards so only those who request a printed copy receive one.
Vermont law requires municipalities to publish an annual auditor’s statement, which many supplement with exposition from everyone from town clerk to dogcatcher. But as the state relaxes distribution rules, more and more are saving money by delivering only the budget basics and sharing the rest at government offices or online.
West Rutland, population 2,181, started the trend a decade ago when it began mailing a bare-bones report, which sparked calls from other interested communities. Nearby Wallingford, population 1,988, switched around 2010, when its abridged mailing cut costs by two-thirds, from $1,500 to $500, and the past printing of 1,000 full reports down to requests for less than 100.
Residents in four-fifths of Vermont’s cities and towns can fill the information void by logging onto some sort of municipal website. But people in 38 communities have no such access, either because their locality is too small, isn’t incorporated, has yet to plug into technology or is worried about missing posting deadlines spelled out in Vermont’s open meeting law.
(Those without websites: Addison, Albany, Andover, Athens, Averill, Belvidere, Benson, Berkshire, Bloomfield, Brownington, Brunswick, East Haven, Ferdinand, Glastenbury, Goshen, Granby, Holland, Hubbardton, Irasburg, Lemington, Lewis, Lunenburg, Mount Tabor, Newark, Norton, Searsburg, Sheldon, Somerset, Stannard, Sudbury, Topsham, Victory, Walden, Washington, West Haven, Westmore, Wheelock and Woodbury.)
Vermont’s 246 cities and towns are required by statute to send a copy of their annual report to the secretary of state’s office for public review and archival preservation. The state is encouraging communities to email digital versions for posting on its website, although municipal clerks still can send paper to the State Archives and Records Administration for conversion into digital documents.
The town of Barnard, population 918, has a website. But that isn’t stopping it from offering other options.
“Select Board meeting agendas are posted on the outside bulletin board on the back side of town hall and on the outside bulletin board at the Barnard General Store,” its website states.
The town of Weybridge, population 824, is similarly wired.
“For real time, face to face interactions,” its homepage notes, “our town office is open.”
