NEW HAVEN — New Haven’s 258th annual town meeting will take place Monday, March 2, at 6:30 p.m. at the New Haven Town Hall.
Voting by Australian ballot to approve the town budget, elect town officers, approve the unified school district and regional technical school budgets, and choose presidential primary candidates will take place in the same location Tuesday, March 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voters are asked to approve Fiscal Year 2020 General Fund expenses of $702,749 (a decrease of $19,618, or 2.7%), plus a School payment of $390,000, for a total General Fund budget of $1,092,794.
Road Fund spending, if approved, would decrease by $105,629, or about 6%, to $1,664,469.
Voters are also asked to OK up to $30,000 in spending from the Reserve Facilities Fund, to pay for repairs to the New Haven Town Hall, including humidity mitigation.
Twenty-three additional articles address smaller appropriations totaling $26,190, an increase of $732, or 2.9%.
Two members of the town selectboard are running for re-election and both are facing challengers.
John Hamel is running against incumbent Taborri Bruhl for a three-year term, and Bruce Many is running against incumbent John Roleau for a two-year term.
This year New Haven does not need to choose members for the Mount Abraham Unified School District (MAUSD) board. Neither of the two seats that make up the town’s representation on that board are up for re-election.
The MAUSD scheduled its own annual meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Mount Abe.
On Town Meeting Day, New Haven residents voting on town business will also, along with residents of four other school district towns, be asked to approve a $31,399,182 MAUSD spending plan for next year, about 1.45% more than this year’s adopted budget.
The proposed MAUSD budget would increase New Haven’s school tax rate by almost 10.2 cents, or 6%, to $1.7994 per $100 of assessed home value.