SALISBURY — Salisbury voters at their town meeting will field a proposed highway budget of $490,143 and a suggested general fund spending plan of $204,440.
The informational portion of Salisbury town meeting will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at the Salisbury Community School; a community pot luck will follow. Australian ballot voting on budgets and town officials will take place on Tuesday, March 6, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the town office.
The 2018-2019 general fund request is down more than $13,000 from the $218,019 voters approved last March. Proposed highway spending is up around $24,000 from the $466,004 that residents approved for such services last year.
Other articles on Salisbury’s town meeting warning seek:
•  Creation of a new “town hall renovation fund.” The selectboard is proposing the fund be sweetened by at least $1,000 per year to use — along with future grants and gifts — to repair the community’s historic town hall building at 918 Maple St. It’s a 2.5-story, wood frame, Greek Revival-style structure erected in 1869. It needs some major improvements before it can again host major gatherings.
•  A combined total of $77,785 to benefit the Salisbury Volunteer Fire Department and a variety of Addison County social services agencies.
There are no contested elections on the ballot in Salisbury. Those running unopposed include Wayne Smith, moderator, one year; Susan Scott, town clerk, one year; Ramona “Pedie” O’Brien, selectboard, three years; Patrick Dunn, selectboard, two years; and Mindy Goodrich, delinquent tax collector, one year.
Salisbury 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 Salisbury is among the Addison County communities served by the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center. So residents will vote on a proposed 2018-2019 Career Center 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.