ADDISON — In Australian balloting on Tuesday, Addison residents favored Amy Kittredge over George Eisenhardt in a race for the Addison Northwest School District Board, supported all town spending measures, and backed Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump in Presidential Primary voting.
Kittredge defeated Eisenhardt, 277-154, for the ANWSD board. She will replace George Lawrence, one of several school board members choosing not to seek re-election.
Residents backed the tax levy needed to support $774,037 in spending to maintain town roads in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, 348-26.
They also backed the taxation necessary to support $383,804 to fund the rest of Addison’s municipal government functions in the coming fiscal year, 311-32.
That spending will support a new part-time position in the town clerk’s office and an audit expected in advance of a bond proposal that Addison expects to make for a community septic system to serve the fire station, the Addison Community Baptist Church, and Addison Town Hall. Addison hopes at some point to renovate its long-vacant town hall into new town offices.
Residents also supported $57,000 of requests from nonprofit organization.
Two long-term selectboard incumbents whose current terms concluded on Town Meeting Day were returned to office without opposition: Rob Hunt and Roger Waterman. Hunt received 446 votes, and Waterman earned 432 checkmarks.
In Presidential primary voting, Addison’s Democrats gave 124 votes to Sanders and 83 to former Vice President Joe Biden. Trailing were Sen. Elizabeth Warren (39), Michael Bloomberg (34), Pete Buttigieg (5), Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (4 each), and Gov. Deval Patrick, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang (1 vote apiece).
Addison’s Republicans supported President Trump with 145 votes, with 15 backing former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld and three favoring Rocky De La Fuente.
Addison joined the other four ANWSD communities in voting on a proposed 2020-2021 budget of $21,842,595 that would reduce spending by about $300,000, or 1%, over the current year. The budget passed by a wide margin.
ANWSD officials said the plan would avoid programming cuts and close Addison Central School (ACS) for use as an elementary school, instead repurposing it for alternative education. Addison’s elementary students will attend Vergennes Union Elementary School, officials said.
According to late estimates, the district-wide tax rate would rise by more than 5 cents if the budget is approved and would have increased by more than double that without the repurposing of ACS.