By Curt Peterson, Standard Correspondent
BARNARD – Barnard officials have scheduled the School Meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 7 at Town Hall, before the Town Meeting, which will follow “whenever the School Board Meeting is finished,” according to Select Board Assistant Preston Bristow. The two meetings traditionally alternate “who goes first” one year to the next.
There is no prequalification requirement to run for office in Barnard. Hopefuls announce their candidacy and make a pitch for votes at Town Meeting.
All votes on issues and for election to Town office are done with a hand vote, so there are no printed ballots.
The Town Warning lists the proposed budget as follows: $771,020 for general municipal expenses, of which $552,520 will be raised from property taxes, and $1,025,463 for highway and road expenses, of which $748,948 will be raised from property taxes.
The current 2016-2017 fiscal year budget is $609,830 municipal, and $948,446 highway and road expense.
Bristow attributes the increase in municipal spending to the $125,000 per year loan payment anticipated for the new Emergency Services Facility, $14,000 increase in administrative line items that include establishment of a $10,000 contingency account, $12,000 increase in solid waste management due to recycling requirements, and $5,000 for needed additional Town Hall maintenance and repair.
The highway budget is over $1,000,000 for the first time, Bristow said, because of two projects: The Mt. Hunger Road bank slide and the Broad Brook box culvert. Although most of their cost is covered by grants, the town will be responsible for additional funding for its portion.
The Select Board was reluctant to estimate a non-school tax rate until the budget is approved at Town Meeting. The increase in the amount to be raised from property tax is a little over 11 percent, which would mean the property tax rate would probably increase by that percentage as well, assuming the Barnard Grand List evaluation remains about the same.
The Barnard School Board proposed budget is $1,214,247, which is $15,564 per “equalized” pupil.
The current 2016-2017 fiscal year budget is $1,224,896, or $14,986 per equalized pupil.
While the total school budget has actually decreased by $10,650, an anticipated increase in per pupil expense would result from applying it to fewer students in the coming year.
There is one article on the School Board Warning that will require an Australian ballot process – whether or not Barnard should join with Killington, Pomfret, Plymouth, Bridgewater, Reading and Woodstock to form a New Unified District as part of school consolidation under Act 46.
A caveat within the Article mentions that Bridgewater and Pomfret, who already combined to form the Prosper Valley School District, may vote to form their own New Unified District, which would omit them from the seventown proposal.
This article first appeared in the February 16, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.