COVENTRY — Voters in the town of Coventry were obviously eager to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunny day, as the annual Town Meeting only lasted a brief two hours.

There were 14 town and school district officer positions that needed to be filled, and many of them had multiple nominations.  Longtime selectman Michael Marcotte’s term was up and once again he was nominated to fill the slot, but this year Pedro Grondin was nominated for the position as well.  After a paper ballot vote, Mr. Marcotte won the position by a vote of 41 to 32.

Frank Carbonneau, who was voted off the school board last year, took over for school director Mary Ellen Linton when she was no longer able to fulfill her term earlier this year. There was still one year remaining on her term, requiring the voters of Coventry to decide who was to fulfill that year.  Mr. Carbonneau, however, believed something different.

“It was my understanding when I came here today that I was going to be nominated for a three-year term,” he said.  “I would have no problem accepting that.”

“Are you declining the position for a one-year term?” Moderator Don Hunt asked.

After a moment of hesitation, Mr. Carbonneau replied that he would accept the one-year term and the community members voted to give him that opportunity.

Longtime school director Mark Mohrmann’s term was also up, and while he was nominated to retain the position, resident Alan Desrocher was also nominated.  Mr. Desrocher was unable to attend town meeting due to work obligations but had his wife read a note, which said, “I know it won’t be easy, but I’m up for the challenge.”

“I’ve been on the board for nine years now,” Mr. Mohrmann said.  “The school’s going to be getting a lot of push from the state and supervisory union in the next few years, and we need someone with experience to help deal with it.”

He won the vote, 56 to 22.  Mr. Desrocher was able to attain a seat on the board with the two-year term left vacant by Ned Lovejoy.

Things got heated again when it came time for the town members to approve the $1,138,767 town budget.

Lister Darrell Martin had a number of questions about why some of the line items were as high as they were. “My feeling is that the town should be voting on major dollars and cents things,” he said.

It was noted that the road maintenance budget had almost doubled, going from $185,750 to $339,750.

“This year through the state there is 2 for 1 money available for paving.” Mike Marcotte said.  “It’s our turn to get that money so we increased the budget.  It’s also a carryover from the previous year.”

Mr. Carbonneau was curious about what contingency plans, if any, the town had for the time when Waste USA closes.  Due to Waste USA, Coventry townspeople do not have to pay municipal tax on their properties.

“We just signed a new ten-year contract that’s renewable in five years,” Mr. Marcotte said.  “I think Waste USA is projecting another 15 years, and they’re also looking at cleaning the old Nadeau landfill and building another cell in order to put stuff in there, and because of the size of that cell they’d project another five or six years.”

He went on to further explain that concern over Waste USA’s future in the town is the reason why a reserve fund was started, which currently contains over $2 million.

Despite being the article to have the lengthiest discussion centered around it, the voice vote to pass the budget was unanimous.

Town members were quick to vote “aye” to everything on the budget until two articles stopped them.

One asked the town to give $250 to the Orleans County Historical Society in order to assist in maintaining the Old Stone House Museum.

Fred Webster moved to amend the motion, doubling the amount.  “They’re trying to build another barn next year and they’re a tremendous service.”

Voters agreed.

The Newport Ambulance Service had requested $7,144.50.  Chris Roy believed that the ambulance service wasn’t getting enough money due to the increased cost of fuel and moved to increase the amount to $7,500.  With only a few opposed, voters agreed to raise the amount.

Once again this year the school’s budget was voted for via ballot.  Late Tuesday night the results were in.  Out of 141 voters, 37 voted no while 104 voted to pass the $2,469,078 budget.