BRIDPORT — Residents of Bridport at their town meeting will be asked to endorse the purchase of a new backhoe and take actions to reduce — and expand the recruitment area — for some municipal positions that have been hard to fill.

The town selectboard is asking for the OK to spend up to $140,000 on the new backhoe and associated equipment; all of that sum would be covered by fund balance money from the Bridport Department of Public Works budget.

Article 26 on the Town Meeting Day ballot seeks voter permission to abolish the position of second constable, while article 28 would allow a non-resident of the town to be elected — or appointed by the selectboard — to one of the town’s three auditor positions. That out-of-town auditor would still have to be a state resident.

Residents will be asked to approve a fiscal year 2027 general fund/highway budget of $1,869,126, up 5.8% from the $1,765,090 residents approved for the current year.

There are no contested municipal elections on this year’s Bridport ballot. Incumbent Selectman Tim Howlett and Bob Sunderland are running unopposed for terms of three and two years, respectively.

The ballot also includes 22 separate finding requests from area nonprofit agencies that serve Bridport residents, as well as requests to exempt both the Bridport Grange and Bridport Historical Society from taxation for another five years.

Voters will also field a proposed fiscal year 2027 Addison Central School District budget of around $53 million, to provide PreK-12 public education for children in Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge. If approved, the budget would result in a 3.58% increase in per-pupil education spending, for a total of $15,638 per child.

The proposed spending plan calls for a 2.15% bump (3 cents) in the district’s current education property tax rate of $1.62 per $100 in property value. But the actual education tax rates in the seven ACSD-member towns will vary, based largely on their common level of appraisal (CLA). CLAs — as determined by town-by-town analyses of their real estate sales by the Vermont Department of Taxes — compare towns’ property tax assessments to fair market value. If approved, the ACSD spending plan would result in an education property tax rate of $1.17 per $100 of assessed property value in Bridport, which would be up 8 cents (8%) compared to this year’s rate of $1.09

Two-thirds of Vermonters pay at least a portion of their school taxes based on income.

There’s a referendum on the March 3 ballot asking residents of Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge if they’d like to officially close Ripton Elementary. If that referendum passes, it paves the way for Ripton to reacquire the property.

Voters will be asked to fill four seats on the 13-member ACSD board — two from Middlebury, one from Salisbury and one from Bridport. There are no takers for the Salisbury seat and one of the Middlebury seats. Meanwhile, Middlebury incumbent Jason Chance and Bridport’s Robyn Stattel (a new candidate) are unopposed for board seats. All ACSD candidates run at-large in the seven-town district.

The Independent found out at the last minute that Salisbury resident James Clark is offering himself as a write-in candidate for the Salisbury seat on the ACSD board. He told us, “I live in Salisbury with my wife and our three children. I’ve stepped forward as a write-in candidate for the open Salisbury seat because I believe healthy communities depend on steady participation from the people who rely on them.”

County residents will field a proposed fiscal year 2027 Patricia Hannaford Career Center budget of $6,271,915, representing a 9.95% increase compared to the current spending plan that delivers Career and Technical Education to students interested in the trades. The increase is largely associated with debt service on a major Career Center improvement project, negotiated wages, and health insurance increases.

The polls will be open at the Bridport Masonic/Community Hall from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3. The business meeting will begin at the same location at 10:30 a.m.