The floor meeting portion of Town Meeting will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 6, at Sharon Elementary School. Ballot voting will take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. the same day in the same location. The school meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, March 5.

Sharon — Town Meeting Day next month will feature a write-in race for a Selectboard seat and increases to both the municipal and school budgets.

Selectman Luke Pettengill resigned last year because of work commitments, according to Chairwoman Mary Gavin, and resident Joseph Ronan has been filling in for him. On March 6, voters will decide who serves the remaining year of Pettengill’s term, although no one has formally signed up to run.

“I was hoping that there would be a couple of other people on (the ballot),” said Gavin, who is running unopposed for re-election to her three-year seat.

The town’s proposed general and highway fund budgets stand at a combined $1.48 million for fiscal year 2019, resulting in an additional $26,000 to be raised in taxes over the current year’s spending. That translates to an estimated municipal tax rate increase of 1.6 cents per $100 of valuation, or about $40 extra on a $250,000 property.

Part of the tax rate increase comes from increased budgeting for capital improvements, including repairs to thoroughfares like Howe Hill Road, Gavin said.

In line with that work, the Selectboard also is considering a more comprehensive capital infrastracture plan for the town’s roads in FY 2019, she said. Gavin will be spending a portion of Town Meeting presenting to residents some options to shore up the town’s roads, none of which are yet set in stone.

“There are some big-dollar items in that plan,” she said, “and we want to start talking with the community about it and get their opinion on it.”

On the school side of things, the proposed 2018-19 budget has risen to $4.39 million, an increase of about 3.3 percent in equalized per-pupil spending, a figure that helps determine the tax burden. Increases in gross spending come mostly to planned wage raises and a new transportation contract, School Board Chairman Donald Shaw said.

Sharon officials don’t yet have estimates of the tax impact from the proposed budget, Shaw said in an interview.

“Without the firm data from the state, we’re really hard pressed to give information on that,” he said.

Also on the Town Meeting warning is a proposal to transfer $33,000 to the highway infrastructure reserve fund from the unassigned fund balance from fiscal year 2017. The transfer, which would not require raising more money in taxes, relates to the town’s efforts to repair its roads. Finally, Sharon residents in March will field a request from 350 Vermont, the state chapter of the global climate activism network 350.org, to endorse a resolution demanding that the state hew to its energy goals.

The resolution says that Vermont has made “insufficient progress” toward its goal of obtaining 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, and asks that the state halt new fossil fuel infrastructure projects, set “firm” interim deadlines for achieving renewable goals, and ensure that the transition to renewable energy doesn’t harm “marginalized groups or rural communities.”

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.