By Norwood Long, Standard Correspondent
POMFRET – The 245th annual meeting of the Town of Pomfret has been warned for Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at 9 a.m. in Pomfret Town Hall. The Pomfret school district meeting will follow later, also in Town Hall.
The Town Meeting Warning shows that four of the five selectboard seats are up for election, along with a number of other elected posts. One of the four selectboard seats up for election is for a three-year term, while the rest are for 1 year with one of those finishing out a three-year term.
Two lister posts and two auditor posts are up for election as well.
This year’s selectboard report in the Town Report includes the statement: “With the assistance of the Auditors and Listers, the Board has researched and developed viable options for ensuring the work of these two very important Boards will continue to be competently performed in the event that these Boards cannot be fully staffed by elected officials.”
The town’s proposed expenditures for fiscal year 2018 total $1,358,378 (that includes highway – $906,500; town – $343,571; and appropriations in warning articles – $108,307), according to Selectboard Chair Michael Reese.
Last year’s proposed town expenditures totaled $1,358,491 (that includes highway – $896,055; town – $401,689; and appropriations in warning articles – $60,747).
Reese said the proposed expenditures for 2018 are $311 less than last year, including all warning articles presented by third party petition.
He said expenditures proposed by the Selectboard for 2018 are $47,673 less than last year. Much of that difference is that the funding of the fire department is by article instead of the budget, Reese said.
The amount to be raised by taxes, for town expenditures for fiscal year 2018, is $963,053, including third party appropriations. That represents a $1,247 increase, or .13 percent, over last year’s amount to be raised by taxes, which was $961,806.
For the school district meeting, the Prosper Valley school budget of $1,650,695 is up about 7 percent over last year’s $1,540,907, with virtually all of the increase in special education. Pomfret’s estimated share of the school budget has increased about 9 percent, from $848,342 last year to $922,671 this year.
Articles to be voted on by Australian ballot include a proposal under Act 46 to form a preschool to grade 12 unified school district (the “Windsor Central Unified Union School District”) encompassing all the 6 schools now sending pupils to Woodstock High School.
This article first appeared in the March 2, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.