MANCHESTER â The town and police department union have agreed on a new four-year contract.
The Manchester Select Board ratified the contract Tuesday at its regular meeting.
Most of the changes from previous contracts was related to changes already in place, but the contract sets those changes in ink.
The department has already shifted its regular work scheduled for uniformed officers to four 12-hour shifts per week, or 48 hours. Officers will work schedules of four days on, four days off.
Dispatchers work 12 hours shifts as well, but work a three days on, two days off, two days on, three days off, schedule.
Don t miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. Â
MANCHESTER â The Manchester Select Board will hold public hearings on proposed zoning changes in June and July, with the second hearing in July potentially held in-person.
The board discussed the return of in-person meetings as the prevalence of coronavirus disease continues to slowly abate with more and more people being vaccinated against the virus.
Town Manager John OâKeefe said that the town was looking at a slow return toward normal as Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has released the stateâs plans.
The town has been planning to allow some outdoor events this summer as the governor has identified July 4 as a key date that things might look more like normal.
Don t miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. Â
Manchester Select Board member Todd Nebraska recently tendered his resignation and has stepped down creating an opening on the five-person board.
Nebraskaâs work has taken him out of town and he has often been attending Zoom meetings from hotel rooms.
But in his resignation letter to board chair Ivan Beattie, he said his family is moving out of Manchester.
âAs I discussed with you, Terri and I have decided to relocate to Middlebury to be closer to my work,â Nebraska said.
His resignation was effective March 19.
âIt has been an honor to be entrusted by the voters of Manchester to represent their interests on the Select Board,â Nebraska wrote. âI wish nothing but the best for the Town and I will always have fond memories of my time serving on both the Select Board and Planning Commission.â
Don t miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
MANCHESTER â Manchester voters approved everything including the budget, rail trail, a fire truck and the library funding.
Without a floor vote and everything being handled with Australian ballot, the Town Meeting Day produced one of the largest vote tallies in recent memory with close to 1,200 votes cast.
And voters were in a generous mood, approving all funding requests including the $5,979,211 budget, by a vote of 937 to 205.
The funding plan calls for a 3.75 percent increase despite cutting spending by $1.01 million dollars as revenues also decreased by $1.13 million.
The Manchester Select Board cut nearly every budget in town except for the fire departmentâs budget.