Pomfret’s annual Town Meeting will start at 9 a.m. on March 6 at the Town Hall. The annual Pomfret School District meeting will follow at 11 a.m. Voting on the Windsor Central Modified Unified Union School District’s budget and other matters by Australian ballot will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.
Pomfret
Candidates aren’t required to declare ahead of time, but Selectboard Chairman Frank Perron, who is not up for re-election, said he expects incumbents Scott Woodward and John Peters Jr., to run again. Peters was appointed to the board after former Chairwoman Sheila Hopkins resigned in August.
Vice Chairman Michael Reese’s term also is up. Reese couldn’t be reached this week.
Pomfret School Board member Jody Eaton’s term expires as well. She couldn’t be reached this week, either.
At Town Meeting, voters also will be asked to approve a proposed town and highway budget that totals nearly $1.3 million, which is within a few thousand dollars of the amount voters approved last year in a voice vote.
The spending plan doesn’t include 10 proposed appropriations totaling $65,576 that will be voted on individually. The requests range from $300 for the Woodstock Area Job Bank to $40,547 for the town’s Abbott Memorial Library.
Last year, the library received $39,828, making this year’s proposal an increase of 1.8 percent.
As has been the practice, Pomfret officials won’t determine the town tax rate until this summer, after the state releases its education spending plan.
“We should get the bill from the state in July, if we’re lucky,” Perron said.
One item not before voters this year: An appropriation for the Pomfret-Teago Fire Department.
The department’s share of property tax dollars — roughly $45,000 — has been rolled into the town budget. Last year, Town Meeting voters approved the department’s request as a separate item.
This year, the Selectboard and fire department representatives “got it all resolved,” so a separate vote wouldn’t be necessary, said Perron, who served as the department’s chief during the 1980s and 1990s.
The Town Meeting warning also asks for residents’ input on whether the Selectboard and fire department should “work together to pursue additional revenues of fire coverage for the entire town, including automatic mutual aid with surrounding fire departments to respond to emergency situations.”
Like many volunteer fire departments, Pomfret struggles to find volunteers. This year’s town report lists a dozen members. Responding to daytime calls is particularly difficult because many members work outside of Pomfret, Perron said.
On the school side, much of the business will be put off until March 12 at the annual meeting of the newly formed Windsor Central Modified Unified Union School District. The meeting will be held at Woodstock Union High School’s Teagle Library, starting at 7 p.m.
Town and school officials have agreed to a Town Meeting Day schedule change this year. The start of the school district’s meeting was moved from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m., reducing the time allotted for town business by an hour or so.
Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.
