WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Hartford Selectboard Chair Ida Greisemer proposed Tuesday that the town send a letter to Lebanon, Norwich and Hanover, requesting $20,000 from each municipality for the Hartford fiscal year 2028 budget. Faced with the proposal, the selectboard postponed making a decision.
The funds, Greisemer said, would support Hartford’s Regional Community Outreach, a new budget line dedicated to supporting people in crisis across the Upper Valley. The proposed funds would be administered by the Hartford Police Department.
“Many people in crisis come to Hartford seeking help, whether on their own or with the assistance of first responders and service providers from across the region,” Greisemer wrote in a draft of the proposed letter.
The board spent most of its Tuesday night meeting listening to liquor license applicants and working through budget requests before Greisemer brought the proposal forward after 3 1/2 hours.
Greisemer’s proposition comes after decades of conversation about Hartford bearing the brunt of aid for people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges. The Upper Valley Haven’s shelter, LISTEN Community Services’ free lunch and food pantry, and the VA Medical Center are situated on the Vermont side of the valley, mostly in White River Junction.
The Hartford Police Department hosts the Upper Valley Situation Table for people on the verge of crisis, bringing together experts in mental health, addiction recovery, housing and healthcare. The people they serve at the table come from all over the area, not just Hartford.
It’s budget season, and Hartford is already stretched thin. At Tuesday’s meeting, Planning and Development Director Lori Hirshfield asked for a $77,000 increase to her department’s fiscal year 2028 budget. Police Chief Constance Kelley is asking for funding for six more officers. The town has to take out a $1.6 million bond for the town hall’s HVAC system.
So Greisemer came up with the idea to ask for help. In the agenda memorandum for the letter, she wrote that the Hartford Police Department had identified short-term emergency housing, removing barriers to care, basic needs, needle disposal kiosks and its new mobile outreach vehicle as priorities for these funds.
Vermont has recently changed some of its homelessness services, prompting Greisemer’s ask for the fiscal year 2028 budget. On Sept. 1, for example, the state altered its motel voucher system, limiting requests for help to weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. At the same time, the federal government has pulled back on housing programs, cutting $3.8 million from Vermont last fall.
Board members were hesitant. Selectboard member Mary Erdei worried about putting more strain on the police and on taxpayers. She said she thought alleviating these community problems should come more from philanthropic efforts than from town funds, and that Hartford should “teach other towns” how to help people in crisis rather than taking them all in alone.
“We’re asking Hartford to do more work again,” Erdei said. “It’s easy to give money to have somebody else do the work. And we do a lot of the work.”
Greisemer said her intention was not to build something new, but to support the police department’s budget for work it already does.
“The intention isn’t, ‘Let’s add things to their plate,’” she said.
The other selectboard members had questions. Miranda Dupre asked whether towns should contribute funds based on their populations; Ashley Andreas wondered whether the funds would be best used by the police or the town nurse; Tim Fariel thought this could be a state issue. Dupre also worried that other towns might think paying Hartford makes homelessness officially a Hartford problem, discouraging them from making their own efforts to help Upper Valley people in crisis.
Multiple board members proposed starting with a multi-town conversation, or funding a summit, rather than asking for money. After hearing their hesitation, Greisemer agreed to postpone a decision.
Vice Chair Erik Krauss, however, voiced his support for the letter.
“Doing nothing: Is that better?” he asked. “Is it better just to say, ‘Let’s postpone it to a larger, broader discussion’? Or can some imperfect solution fill an immediate need?”
Krauss referenced situations where 211, Vermont’s health and human services hotline, was unavailable in the middle of the night. He said in a phone interview Wednesday that when this happened, Hartford’s police department was “left on the hook.” Krauss is interested in hearing from town staff and, in particular, Chief Kelley on the matter, so he will advocate to put the item back on an upcoming agenda.
“We have to deal with the acute crisis and the chronic and systemic issues simultaneously,” he said Wednesday. “Moving into a long-term planning stance to deal with chronic and systemic components alone may leave us in a difficult position where we can’t meet immediate needs.”
By the time everyone had said their piece, it was nearly 10 p.m., and the selectboard did not vote. Greisemer and Krauss will decide whether or not to schedule another discussion about the letter for the selectboard meeting Nov. 24.
