Town Meeting preview: Mascoma schools’ proposed budget has less than 1% increase, three positions cut
Published: 3/3/2021 9:21:05 PM
Modified: 3/3/2021 9:21:02 PM
Hot topic: Mascoma Valley Regional School District voters will be asked to approve a $29.5 million budget for the 2021-22 school year, a less than 1% increase over the current spending plan.
The proposal includes the reduction of three teaching positions through attrition. The Enfield Village, Canaan Elementary and Indian River schools would each lose an instructor to keeps costs in line with enrollment.
If the budget is defeated, a $29.7 million default budget would take effect.
Noteworthy articles: Voters will be asked to appropriate $75,000 for the district’s facilities capital reserve fund and $25,000 for future upgrades to cafeteria equipment. Both would be paid through budget surpluses, not new taxes.
Town Meeting preview: Grafton weighing 2½-ton truck
Published: 3/4/2021 4:35:14 PM
Modified: 3/4/2021 4:44:02 PM
Hot Topic: With the proposed $1.16 million Grafton municipal budget declining by around $25,000, the hot topic is likely to be the purchase of a new 2½-ton truck at a cost of nearly $115,000. Even in that case, town officials plan to cover all but $10,000 of the cost out of capital reserves and the rest would come from the year-end undesignated fund balance.
Noteworthy articles: Among the 23 articles on the warrant are a request to increase the pay for Selectboard members from $2,000 to $2,500 a year and a proposal to increase the number of Budget Committee members from three to four, which with a Selectboard representative would give the committee an odd number of members to prevent tie votes. There are also two petitioned articles, one that would change the purpose of the Library Capital Reserve Fund and another that would urge the Legislature to redraw districts w
A Life: Geraldine Estelle Deal Searles; ‘She was a dynamo’
Gerry Searles, right, of Lebanon, N.H., and Gordon Thomas look at the mural painted by Peter Michael Gish in the Vermont Room at the Coolidge Hotel in White River Junction, Vt., during an opening of the artist s work Friday, June 5, 2009. Every time I come back, I ve got to come and look at these because I think these murals are exceptionally good, said Thomas, a Dartmouth classmate of Gish. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Despite pandemic, some Town Meeting sessions remain in-person, indoors
Modified: 1/13/2021 2:44:48 PM
LEBANON Logistical and legal hurdles surrounding Town Meeting procedures have led at least two Upper Valley communities to schedule in-person sessions this month, despite calls from public health officials to avoid large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Lebanon School District and the town of Grafton both plan to hold indoor deliberative sessions where voters can debate and amend warrant articles from the floor the morning of Saturday, Jan. 30.
Meanwhile, officials with the town of Canaan and the Mascoma Valley Regional School District say they’re likely to follow suit.