The annual meeting of the Orange Southwest School District will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 5, at Randolph Union High School. Randolph Town Meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 6, at the Chandler Music Hall, with voting by Australian ballot for both town and school from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
Randolph
Spending on Randolph’s general fund for fiscal year 2019 would increase $338,000, to $3.17 million, but that includes $235,265 in principal payments for a combined sewer overflow project where the funds are already in hand. The highway budget would decrease by some $24,000, to $1.73 million.
If all municipal spending is approved, the town tax rate would increase by about a penny, to just under 77 cents per $100 of valuation. That comes out to a $1,538 municipal tax bill on a $200,000 home.
The warning includes a request from the water district to borrow up to $1.5 million in a loan or through a bond to repair or replace “potable water infrastructure and/or mitigate the presence of manganese.”
Town Manager Adolfo Bailon said the request comes as Randolph is in a dispute with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation over its standards for manganese, a naturally occurring element often found in groundwater. Bailon, who is in his first year as town manager in Randolph after working for the mayor of Providence, R.I., and for then-U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., contends that state regulators are enforcing a standard that is more stringent than that of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another question on the warning asks voters if they will authorize selling or transferring land on Gilead Brook Road known as “Boy Scout Camp” to a nonprofit or private group, as long as the new owner agrees to maintain the property so that it can be used by the Randolph Scout Troop or a similar group.
There are two contested elections for the Selectboard. Incumbent Jerry Ward is being challenged by Matt Fordham for a two-year seat. And longtime Assessor Patrick French, who is retiring, is running against Perry Armstrong for a three-year seat on the Selectboard being vacated by Ross Evans.
On the school side, the Orange Southwest School District Budget for the 2018-19 school year would increase by 2.2 percent, to $16.66 million.
That translates to a projected residential tax rate of $1.47 in Randolph, up 11 cents per $100 of valuation. That translates to a school tax bill of $2,940 for the owner of a $200,000 home who does not qualify for Vermont’s income sensitivity program.
In races for the School Board, incumbent Anne Kaplan, who was appointed last year, is being challenged by Melody DeFlorio for the remaining two years of a three-year term representing Randolph.
School Board members Paul Putney, of Randolph, and Laura Rochat, of Brookfield, are unopposed for another term. School Board Chairman Angelo Odato, a longtime member from Braintree, is not seeking another term. Rachel Gaidys of Braintree is the only candidate for that seat.
Votes from the three towns in the district — Brookfield, Braintree and Randolph — are commingled before they are counted. Randolph has four members on the School Board, the other towns two each.
John Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 603-727-3217.