SALISBURY — Without any contested elections and some pretty basic budget requests, there aren’t many fireworks in store for Salisbury residents at their town meeting this year.
Perhaps one of the notable things is that Salisbury town meeting for the first time will be held on Saturday. Residents are warned to gather at 3 p.m. on March 4 at the Salisbury Community School. Australian ballot voting will take place on Tuesday, March 7, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the town office.
Residents will decide on a 2017-2018 general fund budget of $218,019, up from the $200,073 spending plan voters approved last year. They will decide a fiscal year 2018 highway budget of $466,004, up from the $444,494 authorized last year.
The Salisbury Town Meeting Day ballot will feature some additional financial requests. Among them are:
•  $7,900 to conduct a perimeter survey of the entire western portion of the municipal forest, including the dog-leg roadway leading to Plains Road.
•  $36,000 to support the Salisbury Volunteer Fire Department.
•  $19,000 to assist the Lake Dunmore/Fern Lake Association Milfoil Prevention Program.
•  A combined total of $18,585 for various Addison County-based social service agencies.
For the first time in many decades, Salisbury residents will not decide a local elementary school budget on Town Meeting Day. They — along with other voters in the newly unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) — will instead decide a K-12 budget for the entire seven-town district.
The proposed ACSD budget for 2017-2018 calls for approximately $37.7 million in spending to cover the combined operating costs for all nine district schools. The budget reflects $30,428,802 in net, local education spending, which represents a 0.60-percent decrease compared to this year, according to ACSD officials.
The Salisbury homestead education property tax rate is projected to decline from the current $1.73 per $100 in property value to $1.632, according to the ACSD budget documents
Running unopposed for local offices this year are Martha Sullivan, three years, selectboard; Tom Scanlon, two years, selectboard; Patrick J. Dunn, one year, selectboard; Susan Scott, one year, town clerk; and Mindy Goodrich, one year, collector of delinquent taxes.
Resident Jennifer Nuceder is also unopposed for a three-year term on the ACSD board. That board will eventually supplant all of the local school boards in the now-unified district. In the meantime, Salisbury is having a tough time getting people to run for final, abbreviated 10-month terms for its local school board and the UD-3 high school board. In addition, there are no takers for a one-year term as moderator; two years as lister; terms of three years and two years as auditor; and one-year as town constable. Residents interested in those posts can wage write-in campaigns on March 7.