The annual Lyme School Meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, at the Lyme School. Town Meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 14, at the Lyme School gymnasium with voting by ballot on town and school officers and six zoning amendments between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Lyme
A petitioned article is on the school warrant to have kindergarten run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m, rather than the current 12:30 p.m. end time.
Though Lyme is the only remaining Upper Valley community without a full-day kindergarten program, School Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Glenshaw said the board opted not to include the $58,000 price tag for extending the day in its proposed budget because they were focused on other priorities included in the board’s strategic plan, which runs through 2018.
“This is a newer initiative that is coming up,” she said. “For the cost, we couldn’t justify bringing this forward at this juncture.”
Should voters approve full-day kindergarten, they will be asked to weigh in on two additional articles.
One asks voters to raise an additional $30,000 to be placed in a trust fund and used in case the kindergarten class has to be split in half due to high enrollment.
The third kindergarten-related article asks for $19,000 to cover the cost of staffing the early literacy program, a role currently filled by the kindergarten teacher after the kindergarten day ends.
A proposed school budget increase of more than 5 percent, about $350,000, is driven primarily by increasing costs to tuition Lyme’s high school students to area schools, primarily Hanover High, Thetford Academy and St. Johnsbury Academy, Glenshaw said.
“High school tuition is your big nut,” Glenshaw said.
She said more than 4 percent, $285,000, of the increase is attributable to the rising cost of high school tuition. This is an increase spurred by the growing number of students Lyme sends to high school and rising tuition rates, she said.
In contrast with most other school districts in the Upper Valley, “we are continuing to experience growth (in the number of school-age children living in town),” Glenshaw said.
Other, smaller increases in Lyme’s school budget include retirement contributions and health insurance costs, Glenshaw said.
Helping to keep costs from increasing even more, is a slight predicted decrease — less than 1 percent — in special education costs for the coming year, she said. It’s a prediction she said she hopes comes to fruition.
“I’m crossing my fingers,” she said. Voters also will be asked to approve costs associated with a new three-year teacher contract, for an increased cost of $43,900 for the current year and next year.
Among the items certain to be discussed during Town Meeting, are repairs for River Road, the condition of which has deteriorated to the extent that a portion has been closed for more than a year and other sections are now at risk of closure.
The town blames River Road’s problems on changes in water levels caused by TransCanada’s operation of the Wilder Dam, Selectboard Chairwoman Susan MacKenzie said.
One Town Meeting article would spend $755,000 to reroute the portion of River Road, two-tenths of a mile to the south of East Thetford Road, that is currently closed. In order to reopen the road, the “only rational option was to reroute the road,” said MacKenzie. The bulk of the cost would come from an unassigned fund balance, though $150,000 would be raised from taxes.
To do so, the town is in the process of taking through eminent domain 5.6 acres of land belonging to Arend Tensen, with a mortgage held by Lyme resident David Roby. MacKenzie said there is a dispute about the value of the land in question. The town had an appraisal which valued it at $46,000, but the landowners say it’s worth much more, she said. She anticipated the dispute would be settled in court.
In the meantime, people who live on River Road are getting frustrated, she said. Those who live to the south of the closed portion have to drive south into Hanover in order to get to the center of Lyme, she said.
Another article, if approved, would raise $70,000 to repair and stabilize a portion of River Road that sits one-tenth of a mile north of the North Thetford Road.
A third article would raise $100,000 to stabilize a portion of River Road south of Grant Brook.
A petitioned warrant article would change the status of River Road from class V to class VI. This article is not supported by the Selectboard and it would make no difference to motorists, said MacKenzie.
“We would not reopen an unsafe road regardless of whether it’s class V or class VI,” MacKenzie said. “We feel it is too dangerous to reopen the road whether at your own risk or not.”
Another River Road-related article would create a mitigation fund which would hold money from the TransCanada Corp. or future owners of the Bellows Falls and Wilder dams should the dam owner be required to pay for property damage. The funds would be used to reimburse towns and landowners for repairs.
The proposed budget to support the town is $2.19 million, up more than $30,000 from the budget voters approved last year. Primary increases include materials for the highway department, and building maintenance and insurance costs, MacKenzie said.
Other money items to be discussed include solarizing the town office and police building and milfoil treatment for Post Pond.
A petitioned article will ask voters to affirm civil rights. It lists concerns about President Donald Trump’s policies and “affirms the rights of all people — including United States citizens and citizens of other nations.”
In ballot voting, Lyme voters will be asked to approve a zoning amendment that would allow for “pocket neighborhoods,” clustered housing, near the center of town.
This amendment is being pushed by proponents of the Pinnacle Project, a proposed co-housing development which would sit on Loch Lyme Lodge property, overlooking Post Pond.
Also by ballot, voters will also be asked to elect a Selectboard member for a three-year seat and two new School Board members. Bradford “Rusty” Keith is the only one who has filed to run to replace Patty Jenks on the Selectboard.
Four candidates are vying for two School Board seats to replace outgoing members Paul Mayo and Steven Toulmin. The candidates for the three-year positions are Hayes Greenway, Carole Ann Tullar, Jonathan Voegele and Jennifer Boylston.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
Correction
Bradford “Rusty” Keith is running for a three-year seat on the Lyme Selectboard. An earlier version of this story misstated the length of the term.
