By Virginia Dean, Standard Correspondent
READING – For the fiscal year July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, voters in this town will be asked to approve a budget of $1,665,995 of which $630,255 is to be raised in taxes to meet the town’s expenses and obligations and to authorize the select board to set a tax rate sufficient to provide the same.
Town meeting will take place on Saturday, March 4, at 9:30 a.m. at Reading Elementary School. Australian Ballot voting will be on Tuesday, March 7, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Reading Town Hall.
The requested amount for the new town budget is a $23,112.50 increase, or 3.8 percent, over last year’s amount to be raised in taxes of $607,142.50, board members said.
The increase is primarily due to two bridges that need to be replaced in South Reading, an action that was unable to be completed in the construction period in 2016, board members related.
“The engineering study that was requested by the Agency of Transportation was completed in July,” Board Chair Robert Allen said. “By the time we were able to get the projects quoted, reviewed and awarded, it was mid-October. We had decided to do the bridge on the Town Farm Road because the water in the North Branch of the Black River was the lowest that we can recall in many years.”
Because the town was beyond the acceptable dates for working in or around a stream, the Agency of Natural Resources would not give it the permit to proceed.
“Getting a permit between now and June 30 is doubtful so everything is moving to the 2017/2018 fiscal year,” board members said.
In addition, based on the four proposals received, select board members discovered that the amount of $550,000 budgeted last year was roughly $250,000 short to do both bridges.
“You will see in the budget that we have carried the current budgeted income and expense amounts forward and have added $250,000 to the total expense,” board members said.
Voters will be asked to allow the Reading Board of School Directors to expend $1,039,665 that is the amount the school board has determined necessary for the ensuing fiscal year. This is a $19,882 decrease, or a 1.9-percent drop, from last year’s school district budget of $1,059,547.
It is estimated that this proposed budget, if approved, will result in education spending of $17,383 per equalized pupil. This projected spending per equalized pupil is .14 percent, or $24, higher than spending for the current year.
Voters will be reviewing two special articles on Saturday, March 4.
Article 4 is the standard election of town officers, and they are elected from the floor.
Articles 7-15 asks voters to raise $49,800 for special appropriations to be allocated to nine different organizations, including the purchase of the Reading Historical Society lot that is adjacent to the Library property, as well as appropriations for Windsor County Partners, Spectrum Teen Center, Visiting Nurse & Hospice, and the Ottauquechee Community Partnership.
This article first appeared in the February 23, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.