The Lyme School District meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 7, in the Lyme Elementary School. Town Meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12, in the Lyme School gym. Voting by Australian ballot will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
LYME โ Voters will decide two Selectboard races, a zoning amendment related to lot sizes and several equipment purchases, including an excavator, fire truck and police vehicle.
The proposed municipal budget is $2.35 million, which would be about a 4.5 percent increase from last yearโs approved budget.
Selectboard member Sue MacKenzie said that increase can be attributed to a proposed personnel change: shifting one part-time office assistant position to full-time.
โWeโre getting behind (in the office), and need more help,โ MacKenzie said.
Voters also will consider whether to amend lot size averaging, a practice requiring the average size of all lots in a subdivision to be equal to or greater than a specified minimum instead of requiring that each individual lot meet a minimum size threshold.
The proposed amendment would increase the maximum dimensions of buildings and simplify the process of subdividing using lot size averaging.
Applicants who would want to use lot size averaging to subdivide lots would go through only the Planning Board, instead of both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment, according to Planning Board Chairman John Stadler.
Pinnacle Project Cohousing had asked the Planning Board about lot size averaging after receiving approval for a subdivision at Loch Lyme Lodge.
The goal of the amendment is โto encourage the use of the clustering option,โ Stadler said. That means houses in a subdivision could be closer together instead of spread out.
Lyme residents rejected a zoning amendment in 2017 that would have allowed clustered housing near the center of town.
Also on the warrant are four proposed equipment purchases totaling about $900,000. That money would come from the townโs capital reserve funds.
A fire truck makes up a good chunk of that cost, at $518,000. MacKenzie said there has been some discussion about the excavator, which would cost $179,000. Others were in favor of a backhoe, but โthe road agent felt they could do more towards cleaning up the ditches and culverts with an excavator,โ MacKenzie said.
The new police vehicle, a Ford 150 truck, would cost $65,000. The current police cruiser would be converted and passed along to the fire department for three years, and then passed on to the highway department.
โRight now we have a large rescue truck thatโs tough to get into tight places, and this vehicle would be of more utility to the fire squad,โ MacKenzie said.
A $130,000 ton truck is also on the warrant.
Road repairs are also a key issue on the warrant. The total proposed funds for these repairs are about $850,000, for Baker Hill Road, Dorchester Road and Goose Pond Road.
If all spending on the town warrant is approved, the estimated amount to be raised in taxes could decrease by about $8,000, to $2.56 million, according to the town report.
Voters also will decide if Lyme will request that Great River Hydro, which runs the hydro-electric dams on the Connecticut River, change its dam operations and create a mitigation fund to reimburse owners and landowners for any and all damages if itโs shown that there is a causal relationship between the operation of the Bellows Falls Dam or Wilder Dam and deterioration of roads and riverbanks. Lyme has had problems with erosion that closed River Road.
There are two contested Selectboard positions this year. Black bear expert Ben Kilham is challenging MacKenzie, a two-term incumbent, for a three-year seat.
MacKenzie, 76, is a retired physician assistant and an emergency nurse. Sheโs focused on infrastructure projects, including River Road and Baker Hill.
โWeโre trying to identify infrastructure needs and prioritize them, and fund them without having a devastating effect on the tax rate,โ MacKenzie said.
Kilham, 66, previously served on the Planning Board and Budget Committee. He said he is running for Selectboard because, โitโs good to give people a choice.โ
โThere are a lot of things that are questionable about how much money theyโve spent,โ Kilham said.
Current Selectboard member Rusty Keith is resigning from the Selectboard after Town Meeting, leaving one year left on his term.
Judith Lee Shelnutt Brotman, 70, and C. Jay Smith, 72, are running for that seat.
Both have served on the Selectboard in the past. Smith said he would want to hold costs down.
For Brotman, Lyme is no โdifferent than any other townโ when it comes to budgetary issues, infrastructure, roads and staffing issues, she said.
On the school side, the proposed budget is $7.3 million, a 3.7 percent increase from the current school year.
Salary increases are contributing to that, said School Board member John Voegle.
One School Board position is contested. Vincent H. Berk and Yolanda Bujarski are on the ballot for the two-year position.
Daniela Vidal Allee can be reached at dallee@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
Correction
The proposed $7.3 million school budget in Lyme would be a 3.7 increase over the current school year. An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect rate of increase.ย