WEYBRIDGE — Weybridge residents passed all items on their nine-article town meeting warning, including a $190,000 request for a new tandem plow truck for the highway department.
The fiscal year 2021 Highway Department budget of $519,400 and General Fund request of $169,480 both passed unanimously by resounding voice votes.
Other requests OK’d at Weybridge’s town meeting included:
•  $25,000 to support the Weybridge Volunteer Fire Department.
•  $10,000 to continue the town-sponsored volunteer recycling program.
•  A combined total of $27,675 for various Addison County nonprofits that serve Weybridge residents.
There were no contested elections on the Weybridge ballot this year. Those running unopposed included Spencer Putnam, moderator, one year; Nikhil Plouffe, selectboard, two years; and T. Charles Jordan, selectboard, three years. Plouffe and Jordan are both new to the board.
Local residents helped decide two races for the Addison Central School District board. One of them involved Ellie Bishop challenging Jennifer Nuceder for a three-year term representing Salisbury on the 13-member panel. The other featured Christin Gardner and incumbents Mary Gill and Victoria Jette for two available slots representing Middlebury. Nuceder topped Bishop, 1,920 to 1,289, while Gill and Jette earned 2,323 and 2,278 tallies, respectively, in their successful re-election bids. Gardner finished out of the running with 1,446 votes.
Weybridge voters on March 3 joined Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury and Shoreham folks in fielding an Addison Central School District K-12 education budget proposal of $39,507,837 for the 2020-2021 academic year and a proposed 2020-2021 Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center budget of $3,854,752 (see related story).
In the Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders topped the field in Weybridge with 152 votes, while Joe Biden finished second with 88 tallies. Those also receiving votes included Elizabeth Warren (80), Michael Bloomberg (39), Amy Klobuchar (5) and Pete Buttigieg (8).
In the Republican primary, President Donald Trump led the field with 27 tallies, while Bill Weld finished second with 10.
Four ACSD towns held votes on two petitioned items that the school district board had declined to place on the district ballot, but Weybridge decided that rather than ask residents to vote it would survey townspeople on the two items. The first survey question asked respondents if they believed each ACSD board member should be elected only by the voters of his or her hometown, as opposed to at-large in the seven-town district. The second asked respondents if they believed an ACSD school shouldn’t be closed unless such a move is endorsed by a majority of voters in the town in which the school is located. The survey results were still being tabulated as the Independent went to press on Wednesday.