WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A divided Selectboard has decided to bring an already-approved $3.3 million pool project back to Town Meeting this March due to concerns about the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The 4-3 vote Tuesday evening followed a tense hourlong discussion in which board members and the public debated who would benefit from the pool and whether voters’ Town Meeting vote in March should be reconsidered.
Board member Alan Johnson’s motion to delay construction on the pool pending a new Town Meeting vote on the bond next March was supported by Alicia Barrow, Simon Dennis and Emma Behrens.
Board Chairman Dan Fraser and members Joe Major and Kim Souza voted against the measure.
Johnson, who opposed the pool project prior to March, argued that “the demands on this community for services have gone up in a way that we could not have guessed in 2019,” and that the money could be spent in better ways, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The discussion among board members got particularly heated when Johnson referred to the push to construct a pool an act of “privilege” in a time when many residents are dealing with more pressing issues like homelessness and economic insecurity.
“This is what white supremacy looks like. White supremacy is when people of color or white people continue with the status quo because that’s how we’ve done it. It’s when we don’t make changes to our processes, our policies and our spending,” Johnson said. “Because nothing else matters more than how we spend the dollars we extract from our community to say what our priorities are.”
Major countered that the pool was a boon for many members of the community, especially struggling single parents.
“That was an unfortunate road you went down,” he told Johnson in the meeting.
The pool bond, which voters approved in a 1,715-1,387 vote at the Town Meeting in March, would pay for a new pool to replace the 52-year-old Sherman Manning Pools, which closed in 2018 because it needed repairs.
The new pool would feature four lap lanes, water features for children and a sloped entrance that’s accessible for people with physical handicaps.
The cost of the pool would amount to an additional $50 per year for the owner of a $250,000 home, according to the town. The cost to maintain the pool could be $80,000 a year, Dennis said recently.
In September, the Parks and Recreation Department picked Middlebury-based Bread Loaf Construction, which submitted a $3.17 million bid, to head up the project. But at a meeting earlier this month, some board members questioned whether voters should reconsider the proposal due to the economic impact of the pandemic.
At that time, the board voted unanimously to have interim Town Manager Pat MacQueen look into any legal hurdles the board could face if it brought the issue up for another vote. MacQueen said Tuesday night that town attorney Paul Giuliani advised that the board may put a project on hold due to “external circumstances,” and that the pandemic met that standard.
Only the voters could choose to abandon the project altogether, according to a letter from Giuliani included in the Selectboard agenda that cited Vermont statute.
The following pages are from the Hartford Selectboard agenda for its Oct. 20 meeting. Continue reading the story after the PDF.
During the Tuesday discussion, Johnson and Barrow said the COVID-19 pandemic presented new financial challenges for voters. They argued that Hartford residents should get to decide if they still want the pool — and the 20-year tax hike that comes with it — in light of the ongoing financial fallout from the pandemic.
“We’re here to put the town’s needs first,” Barrow said. “Not their wants, not their wishes, not their whimsies. Their needs.”
But Major argued that bringing the vote back in front of taxpayers would just delay another inevitable “yes” vote for the pool, and that delay could be costly.
“There’s no way (the construction company) can hold the cost,” Major said, adding that by the time voters decide on the pool again, the cost of materials will have increased. “The cost of this pool is going to go up.”
He and Fraser both argued that the board should follow the will of voters, since they already decided on the pool back in March.
“It sets a very poor example for us as a Selectboard and us as a town if we spent so much time researching something … and then we second-guess what that is,” Fraser said.
The voters have had the opportunity to oppose the pool in the months following the pandemic outbreak, he added, and there has been no public uproar. A signed petition of 10% of registered voters could also force a re-vote, without action from the Selectboard.
“We haven’t had someone present us with something saying, ‘we want this to be re-voted on,’ ” Fraser said.
Members of the public who spoke during the meeting were divided on the issue, as well.
Former Hartford resident Asma Elhuni, who moved to Lebanon three months ago, argued that it makes “no sense” to build a pool in the midst of a global pandemic.
“I wonder how justifiable it is to spend $3 million on a pool that will only be used in the summer but paid for year-round,” she added.
Resident Wayne Kendall said the alternative to the pool — swimming in rivers and ponds in the summer — can be dangerous. He also took issue with Johnson’s comment about white supremacy.
“We’re middle-class working people,” Kendall said before adding, “I went to school with people of color, I have colored friends.”
Barrow cut Kendall off at the second comment, calling his statement a “prime example of privilege.”
Two members of the public, including Elhuni, voiced opposition to the pool during the public comment session of the meeting. But in the chat feature of the virtual meeting, many residents threw their support behind the pool, arguing it’s a safe recreation option and that the town should honor the will of the voters.
“The costs of the pool will hit the taxpayer in 1.5 (years) when the therapeutics and other vaccines for COVID will be in place and helping the economy recover,” wrote Jeff Arnold, a former School Board member, adding that the tax increase for the pool is “not a heavy lift.”
“People know what they are voting for and what they want to pay for,” he said. “If you care about the community don’t overturn a popular vote because you think you know better than the voters.”
Following the discussion and Johnson’s motion, the board voted unanimously to send a letter of intent to Bread Loaf Construction, saying that if residents re-vote in favor of the bond, the town will again tap the company to handle the construction project. The letter will also ask Bread Loaf Construction to try to keep the bid price as close to its initial $3.17 million offer as possible.
Correction
Asma Elhuni moved from Hartford to Lebanon three months ago. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified where she is now a resident.