STARKSBORO — On Town Meeting Day, three selectboard candidates running unopposed in Starksboro all won at the polls.
Incumbent Greg Cota won another three-year term. Greg Hahr won election to the remainder of the term he’d been serving as an appointee. And newcomer John Painter won a seat that was vacated by Keegan Tierney.
Caleb Elder was re-elected for a three-year term on the Mount Abraham Unified School District board.
The MAUSD budget and an additional article passed easily. Starksboro voters, along with MAUSD voters from four other towns, approved a $31,399,182 budget for the coming school year, 2,391–1,611, with all ballots commingled.
They also approved the creation of a Capital Reserve Fund, to be initially funded with $610,118 of the district’s audited fund balance existing on June 30, 2018.
On Saturday at the Starksboro annual town meeting, voters approved:
•  $1,036,072 in general fund spending.
•  a $49,268 contribution to the Fire Equipment Reserve Fund.
•  a $97,267 contribution to the Road Equipment Reserve Fund.
•  a $40,000 contribution to the Paving Reserve Fund.
•  $31,950 for the Starksboro Public Library.
•  $44,425 for various in-town requests.
•  $27,380 for out-of-town requests.
•  $6,000 to support the Starksboro Cooperative Preschool.
•  $2,106 for Addison County Transit Resources.
•  $3,400 for the support of Richmond Rescue.
Starksboro voters cast 428 votes in the Democratic Primary and 126 votes in the Republican Primary.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders came out ahead with 258 votes. He was followed by Joe Biden, 69; Elizabeth Warren, 59; Mike Bloomberg, 22; Pete Buttigieg, 12; Amy Klobuchar, 4 and 1 vote apiece for Tulsi Gabbard, Mark Stewart, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.
For the Republicans, Donald Trump won with 109, compared to 13 for Bill Weld and 1 for Rocky De La Fuente.