RIPTON — Ripton residents at their town meeting will be asked to support a general fund budget of $255,362 and a highway spending plan of $359,400 for fiscal year 2018-2019.
The combined proposal of $614,762 is up around $40,000 from the $574,547 that residents approved last year for town services.
Other articles on the meeting warning seek:
•  $41,000 for the Ripton Volunteer Fire and First Response Department.
•  $7,000 for the Ripton Cemetery Commission.
•  A combined total of $22,316 for various Addison County human services agencies.
There are no contested elections on the Ripton Town Meeting Day ballot this year.
Running unopposed are Ronald Wimett, selectboard, three years; Alison Dickinson, town clerk, one year; Carolyn Smith, town treasurer, one year; Kathleen Sullivan, delinquent tax collector, one year; and Timothy Hanson, town moderator, one year.
Ripton residents are part of the consolidated Addison Central School District that delivers K-12 public education to seven Middlebury-area towns. Those residents will vote on a 2018-2019 ACSD budget of $36,762,479, which reflects a 1.32-percent spending decrease, the elimination of more than 20 full-time-equivalent jobs, and a spending rate of $16,907.29 per equalized pupil.
The town of Ripton is among the Addison County communities served by the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center. So residents will vote on a proposed 2018-2019 PHCC budget of $3,498,524, which reflects a spending rate of $21,466 per full-time equivalent student. That FTE student spending rate is 6.47 percent higher than this year’s.
Four candidates are running at-large for the ACSD board. All are unopposed. The candidates are incumbent Peter Conlon of Cornwall, Devina Desmarais and Margaret “Peg” Martin of Middlebury, and Jori Jacobeit of Shoreham.
Ripton’s annual meeting will be held at the Ripton Community House at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 5, beginning at 7 p.m. Australian ballot voting will take place the next day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., also at the community house.