SALISBURY — Salisbury voters at their town meeting will decide a race for their selectboard and discuss the prospect of closing their municipal landfill.
Residents will also participate in a governance unification vote for the Addison Central Supervisory Union and help determine the composition of a 13-member board that would oversee the unified district and a single budget for all public schools within the ACSU. Jennifer Nuceder is running unopposed for Salisbury’s one-year term on the new board. The new board will be elected at-large, meaning residents of all seven Addison Central towns will vote on candidates for all 13 positions. Election of this new board is contingent on ACSU voters approving unification of their school governance, which will be a separate referendum on the March 1 ballot.
The selectboard race for one two-year term features Jonathan Blake and Ramona “Pedie” O’Brien.
There are no other contested elections on the ballot. Candidates running unopposed include Wayne Smith, town moderator, one year; Susan Scott, town clerk, one year; Paul Vaczy, selectboard, three years; and John Nuceder, Salisbury School Board, three years. Write-in campaigns or appointments will be needed to fill a two-year spot on the Salisbury school board and a three-year term on the UD-3 school board, as those positions currently have no takers.
Salisbury currently operates the only unlined landfill in the state of Vermont. Town officials believe state rules governing the Salisbury landfill will only become more rigorous and costly during the coming years, and they want local residents to weigh in on the notion of keeping it open or closing it. Closing the landfill would mean joining the Addison County Solid Waste Management District and establishing a trash/recycling transfer station in town.
Salisbury school directors are proposing a spending plan of $1,765,719, representing a 4.41-percent increase compared to this year. It is estimated that this proposed budget, if approved, would result in education spending of $17,211per equalized pupil. This projected spending per equalized pupil is 6.62 percenthigher than spending for the current year. As the Addison Independent went to press, the Vermont Agency of Education was still awaiting clarification from legislators on how Act 46 will affect the “property dollar equivalent yield” used to calculate the homestead education property tax rates in all local school districts.
Officials are proposing a 2016-2017 general fund budget of $194,573, down slightly from the $200,097 in spending authorized last year. The proposed highway budget comes in at $443,494, up slightly from the $442,587 that was endorsed for this year.
Other articles on Salisbury’s town meeting warning seek:
• Rescission of a prior community vote to eliminate the office of town auditor.
• A combined total of $73,015 for various charities and nonprofit programs that benefit Salisbury citizens. Around $35,000 of that total is earmarked for the Salisbury Volunteer Fire Department, and $19,000 is to be used for the Lake Dunmore/Fern Lake Association’s milfoil prevention program.
Salisbury’s annual meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 29, at the Salisbury Community School. Australian ballot voting will take place the next day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the town office.