BRIDPORT — Bridport residents at their town meeting agreed to take steps to take the town clerk, treasurer and tax collector positions off future election ballots and instead allow the local selectboard to appoint people to those positions. This will allow qualified candidates to apply from outside of the town of Bridport.
Townspeople also allowed the selectboard to use $297,000 from the community’s general fund surplus to pay for replacement of a Crown Point Road culvert, and agreed to allow the town to take out a loan of up to five years to finance a new firetruck, expected to cost up to $200,000.
Residents at the annual meeting amended their combined general fund-highway budget proposal of $1,096,315 as a result of a clerical error. The number was amended upwards to $1,602,888, according to Town Clerk Valerie Bourgeois. But the amount to be raised by taxes didn’t change as dramatically. It was changed from $930,390 to $939,963. The measure was approved.
The Bridport Central School budget of $1,536,626 — representing a 4.96-percent increase —  passed by a tight 112-108 margin.
Other articles on Bridport’s town meeting that won approval included:
•  $12,500 in support for the local fire department.
•  A combined total of $25,898 in funding requests from various Addison County social service organizations.
There were no contested elections on this year’s ballot. Unopposed candidates winning election included Valerie Bourgeois one year, town clerk; Irene Zaccor one year, town treasurer; and Sue Walker and Leonard Barrett two years and three years, respectively, on the selectboard. Meanwhile, Rick Scott earned a one-year term on the UD-3 school board, while Suzanne Buck, Keith Grier and Tim Franklin won terms of two, three and one year, respectively, on the Bridport Central School Board.