By Michelle Fountain, Standard Correspondent
On Tuesday night, just under 40 voters passed an amended Woodstock Village budget of $1, 383,245 and all articles unanimously.
Earlier in the day, 129 voters participated in Australian balloting and elected Keri Cole to a three-year term, Ward Goodenough to a two-year term and Serena Nelson to a one-year term as village trustees.
The meeting started off with an amendment to the budget. A $66,000 expense for insurance was inadvertently left out of the budget and Trustee Jeffrey Kahn offered an amendment to add that back in and increase the budget accordingly, which quickly passed.
As each current trustee presented his or her portion of the budget, a familiar refrain was repeated. “There’s not a lot to report except you can see that our proposed budget is down somewhat,” Kahn began and his fellow trustees all echoed in some form or another.
The primary reason for the decrease in the budget was the unified highway department that was passed at Woodstock’s annual town meeting. That passage brings the village highway department under the town budget, thus reducing the village budget.
Departing Trustee Chair Candace Coburn noted that she had joined the board of Village Trustees ten years ago with an aim towards a merger. Although that has not happened (the last merger vote was defeated by just 9 votes), it was recently discovered that the town and village had voted to merge the highway departments in 1980 and again in 1984 (by turning down a vote to separate them) but somehow the departments became separate again in the 1985 budgets.
“Who knew it was right under our noses the whole time,” Coburn said referencing the combined highway department and town’s contribution to the police department that reduce village taxes.
In presenting the police department’s budget, Trustee Ward Goodenough introduced the latest addition to the department, Officer Jessica Le Blanc, a 2007 Castleton College graduate and five-year police veteran. . “We are now fully staffed,” he said noting the challenges and overtime required to cover all the shifts when they were not fully staffed.
“It seems to me that there are a lot more tractor trailer trucks coming through than there has been in recent history,” Joe DiNatale asked of Police Chief Robbie Blish noting the damage they
can cause to historic homes by rattling foundations.
“I haven’t noticed an uptick…we still stop a fair number of trucks,” Blish said.
Village Manger Phil Swanson pointed out ‘the Woodstock Rule’. “It is the only stretch of highway in the state of Vermont where a truck has to have a permit for over 72 feet.”
“The rules have changed and become more lenient on trucks in the last six years,” Swanson stated. ” He added that there will be a traffic survey completed in conjunction with the Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission later this year to provide traffic data.
Jill Davies proposed an amendment to Article VIII increasing the amount for village beautification projects and seasonal decorations from $2500 to $5000, which voters passed after some discussion.
DiNatale noted that the Economic Development Commission had provided a $2000 grant for village beautification last year but that the commission, of which he is a member, “is to assist in start-ups, entrepreneurship, and initial ventures with the hope that sometime they can go on their own.”
Gary Thulander, Woodstock Inn President and General Manager and Woodstock Area Chamber of Commerce President, noted that the Chamber seeks funds from local businesses to support the village flower baskets including $5-6,000 a year to maintain them. “It does deserve more funds in our opinion, and we would love to have some help with that.”
“I think that should be part of the town budget,” Coburn said.
As Village Meeting concluded in just over one hour, John Mathews said, “I hope this new board tries to get a merger as a tribute to Candace.
This article first appeared in March 23, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.