WALTHAM — Waltham residents from the floor of town meeting on Monday evening picked a new selectboard member — who also becomes the first woman to serve on the Waltham selectboard, according to town officials — and approved town spending measures.
On Monday night Janet Yeager was nominated from the floor of town meeting for the selectboard and was elected by voice vote. She is a former Waltham Planning Commission member. Yeager replaces board member Michael Grace, who stepped down after his term expired at town meeting.
Residents also backed the selectboard’s proposal for town spending for the coming fiscal year of $219,183, which included both town office and highway spending.
The budget includes $101,000 in highway spending. That figure is about $30,000 lower than current spending, but does not include a separately warned article seeking to put $15,000 into a fund devoted to capital spending on road projects that was in the 2019 budget request. Spending on culverts is also projected to be $16,000 lower this coming fiscal year.
It also included $102,933 for administrative spending general accounts. This figure is about $9,000 higher. Officials said the town’s fire contract with Vergennes increased, and the selectboard is asking for more patrolling hours from the Addison County Sheriff’s Department.
Residents also backed separately warned articles, $10,692 for the Bixby Library in Vergennes, the $15,000 for capital spending on road projects, $250 for records preservation, and “a minimum of $300 per mile for town roads.”
In Presidential primary voting, Waltham’s Democrats backed Bernie Sanders with 75 votes. Trailing were Joe Biden (46 votes), Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren (9 apiece), Pete Buttigieg and Tulsi Gabbard (3 each), and Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick and Tom Steyer (1 each).
On the Republican side Donald Trump outpolled Bill Weld, 19-1.
Waltham also joined the other four ANWSD communities in supporting by a wide margin a 2020-2021 school budget of $21,842,595 that will reduce spending by about $300,000, or 1%, over the current year.
ANWSD officials said the plan would avoid programming cuts and close Addison Central School 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.