FERRISBURGH — Voters have two days of decisions to make in Ferrisburgh in the coming week.

First, residents will congregate in the Ferrisburgh Town Hall at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28, to make spending decisions on the town budget and nonprofits from the floor.

Then four days later they will head back to the town hall to cast ballots for elected officials, an article to eliminate a municipal position and the Addison Northwest School District Fiscal Year 27 spending plan, which is warned at $28,314,179, slightly higher than the approved spending last year.

On Tuesday, March 3, polling at the town hall opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m.

Like ANSWD’s, the town’s budget proposal is also up from last year.

It came in at $2,862,039.92, $31,886.92 higher than the $2,830,154 voters approved last year on Town Meeting Day. The plan calls for $2,360,639.92 to be generated through taxes, up $13,686, or around a half a percent, from the $2,346,954 that officials planned to collect over the course of FY26.

The key contributor to that rise is increasing costs in the highway department, which is experiencing higher material prices and gearing up for one-time infrastructure projects such as a new culvert at Old Hollow Road and paving aprons on Monkton Road, Avery Road and South Middlebrook Bridge, Town Clerk Jessica James has said.

Costs associated with software updates and public safety are also playing a part.

In addition to the roughly $3 million spending plan, voters will consider allocating $36,895 to numerous social service agencies including Atria Collective, Homeward Bound and the Commodore Club, just to name a few.

Of the 28 organizations slated to receive a sum, Tri-Valley Transit, Turning Point Center of Addison County and Addison County Home Health & Hospice have the biggest requests, with $3,517, $3,000 and $2,983, respectively. The other 25 organizations are asking for between $150-$2,500.

The choice will be easy when it comes to elected officials — there are no contested races.

Incumbent James Benoit is running for the open three-year selectboard seat and Liz Markowski is running for the available two-year post on the decision-making body.

Residents will also consider putting management of the town’s property information in the hands of an assessor in lieu of the office of the Town Lister, which a warning article proposes eliminating.

The three lister positions are also elected seats.

“If this passes it would mean that the listers would all end their term by Town Meeting 2027,” James explained.

“We already have an assessor that is hired by the selectboard based on the recommendation of the listers. Many towns are moving toward assessors because modern property assessment requires more specialized training than the traditional part-time lister role. Starting Jan. 1, 2026, state law (32 V.S.A. § 4052) will require all elected listers to become certified within one year of their election, and this is tricky with the very part-time role these volunteers serve.”

Ahead of voting on the ANWSD budget, the district will hold its Annual Meeting and Public Information Hearing on this budget on Monday, March 2, at 6 p.m. at the Vergennes Union High School library.

The $28,314,179 the board estimates is needed to operate Vergennes Union high and elementary schools, and Ferrisburgh Central School, in the upcoming fiscal year is up $661,179 from the $27,653,000 spending plan that voters in Addison, Ferrisburgh, Panton, Vergennes and Waltham approved on Town Meeting Day last year. That figure passed by a 62-38% margin.

Higher spending on student support services makes up for $445,962 of the $660,000 increase, according to a school board presentation. Student support services include attendance, counseling, nursing and health, SLP services, OT/PT services, intervention, curriculum, the office of learning, and professional development.

The proposed budget pays for four positions that were previously grant funded, which board chair Mark Koenig said is driving that roughly $450,000 increase.

Though the tax rate won’t be concrete until a state budget is passed and state aid for education is known, the school board has outlined an illustrative tax estimate based on the spending plan. In Ferrisburgh, that tax rate stands at $2.0942 per $100 of assessed property value, up from $2.0139, which represents an increase of about 8 cents or less than 4%. It would increase property taxes about $80 per $100,000 of assessed value.