Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the fact that Shelley Twitchell is not stepping down from the selectboard, and selectboard member Monica Collins intends to run for re-election.
HANCOCK — On Town Meeting Day residents of Hancock will vote on town and school spending plans as well as a number of individual appropriations. The meeting is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at the Town Hall on March 1 with town business first, followed by school business.
For the town’s general and highway funds, residents will vote on a $417,460 spending plan, which represents a decrease of 5 percent from the $441,653 approved last year.
Hancock lacks it own school and pays tuition for local children to attend schools in other towns. This year, voters will say yea or nay on a school budget of $965,213. The proposed budget, if approved, will result in education spending of $17,314 per equalized pupil, which is 2.7 percent lower than the current year.
In several larger individual appropriations, voters will decide on $70,000 for repairing and repainting the Hancock Town Hall; $19,374 for services from the White River Ambulance; $2,583 for the Quin-Town Senior Center; and $1,475 for the Visiting Nurse Association of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Town offices are filled at town meeting, some by paper ballot. Voters could elect one new selectboard member. Monica Collins’ term is expiring and she could be re-elected to a three-year term or a newcomer could take her place; Daniel DeLorm, a lifelong Hancock resident, said he will seek that selectboard position. (This article when originally posted erroneously reported that selectboard member Shelley Twitchell was also stepping down — midterm; but she is not. The Independent regrets the error.)
Hancock will also elect people to 14 other offices including town clerk, treasurer, lister, constable, auditor, delinquent tax collector and representative to Valley Rescue. In town school district elections, voters will elect a school board director for a three-year term.