HARTLAND – The Selectboard voted unanimously to extend the contract of Town Manager John Broker-Campbell by three years and potentially more.
The contract extension, effective Jan. 1, came after the Selectboard held an executive session earlier this month to consider a performance review and contract renewal.
“On an overall basis, I think things are very, very positive,” Selectboard Chairman Phil Hobbie said of the decision to extend Broker-Campbell’s contract. “We were pleased with John’s demeanor and ability to deal with crisis situations in town as well as the everyday town business function.”
46-year-old Broker-Campbell was hired as town manager of Hartland in January 2024 with an annual salary of $92,000. Prior to joining the Hartland town staff, he served as the southern region floodplain manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation and as town moderator in Weathersfield.
Under his new contract, Broker-Campbell will receive a salary of $103,750, “reflecting cost-of-living and merit increases over the course of the past two years,” according to a news release from the town.
He will also receive “not less than five (5) weeks of annual paid vacation,” the contract stipulates, and an annual Cost of Living Adjustment “provided to all town employees plus an additional 1% per year.” There is also a provision after the three years for renewal of two-year terms.
“(The contract extension) is nice to have,” Broker-Campbell said. “It’s a nice opportunity … to know that I’ll be here for the next three years at a minimum.”
During two-year tenure as town manager, he highlighted accomplishments such as securing a state paving grant to resurface 1.8 miles of Brownsville Road.
He said he’s confident the town is headed in the right direction.
“The first couple years were really kind of getting my feet under me and I think we’re pretty well-established now,” he said. “I’m just excited to start identifying and working on some of those bigger projects that are facing the town right now.”
He mentioned conducting lead and asbestos testing at Damon Hall, the Hartland Recreation Center and the Hartland Four Corners Building as a priority to provide “baseline knowledge of each building so the town can plan on how to address the issues.”
“As expected in historic structures, there is some degree of lead paint and a minor amount of asbestos (very minor),” he said in an email.
All necessary remediation work is slated to be completed “in the coming months.”
The town is also in the process of addressing accessibility concerns at Damon Hall “as funding allows,” he said.
On infrastructure improvements, he said, the town is taking the information gathered since he arrived in 2024 and “translating it into actionable items.”
“But also thinking then what does five years look like and what does 10 years look like in town?” he said. “What do we need to do to position Hartland to be in a good spot in the long term?”
Looking ahead, prominent on the list of priorities is a comprehensive plan for Quechee Road.
“We all know and can easily identify it as a road that needs significant improvements,” Broker-Campbell said. “But as opposed to taking the band-aid approach, the report gives us the in-depth understanding of what the sub-surface is and what’s been done in the past 20 years to the road.”
In August 2024, Broker-Campbell and the town enlisted Lebanon-based Pathways Consulting LLC to conduct an engineering study on the road, which connects Route 4 in Quechee and with Route 5 in Hartland, to help determine the most cost-effective solution to improve safety.
“We really decided to sit back and get the full shock value of the engineering report,” Hobbie said. “It is a paved road, but over the years when it was paved, there was no real surface preparation. So it’s in real rough shape.”
According to Hobbie, the projected cost of the project is about $6 million for just over 6 miles of Quechee Road.
“We’ve been wrestling with how to approach that,” Hobbie said. “(The cost) is staggering, and the town just can’t afford it bond or no bond.”
The town is currently exploring its engineering options.
“It’s a very expensive project, so it becomes one of those, do we run a bond for it?” Broker-Campbell said. “What is the anticipated tax impact on that? Can we save money over the next couple years?”