IRASBURG -- “It would help if you’d all line up in alphabetical order,” Lynn Perry said as the attendees of Irasburg town meeting rose from their seats to cast a ballot vote for town clerk.
For the sake of accuracy, voters who had their names checked on the check list at the entrance to the upstairs room in the town hall were then checked again as they cast their vote. As each person approached the chicory blue ballot trunk to vote for the town clerk, they were checked against the check list by Ms. Perry and had their right hands marked with a black slash by Town Clerk Danielle Ingalls. One hundred and eleven ballots later Ms. Ingalls learned she would continue as town clerk, having won 57 votes, with 56 needed to defeat the other nominee, Linda Stone. Ms. Stone was later elected town treasurer.
Irasburg passed both its town and school budgets Tuesday evening. The total town budget listed in the town report is $476,000, down from the 2009 budget of $482,945. The highway fund, which is part of the total town budget, was $213,000. Selectman Randy Wells explained that part of the reason their budget was about $30,000 less than last year’s was a better price on gravel than they expected.
Ron Holland was re-elected moderator for the Irasburg school district. The total proposed budget of $1,700,692 was down 5 percent from last year’s budget. The unanimous “yeas” were followed by a brief burst of applause.
“You guys did a good job. You got the budget down, but it’s not going to translate into a decrease in your tax bill,” Peter Faust reminded the voters. Amy Leroux, chairman of the Irasburg School Board, concurred, saying that because the base tax rate and the common level of appraisal are set by the state, taxpayers would not see significant reductions in their taxes.
Alan Butler, the tax collector, noted that information in the town report regarding delinquent taxes was outdated. The total delinquent taxes (cumulative from 2006 through 2009) were reported as $75,564. Since December 31, 2009, Mr. Butler announced, that figure had declined by almost $40,000 to $35,992.
Among the elected positions, Alan Butler was re-elected delinquent tax collector, Carmen Lamarche was elected auditor, and Ron Pray was elected first constable.
A suspension of rules allowed Representative Duncan Kilmartin to make five minutes worth of remarks. He is opposed to the consolidation concept in education currently under discussion at the State House. He concluded with statistics showing that while Vermont’s population of citizens ages 45 to 65 has increased by 12 percent since 2000, the state has lost 11 percent of its citizens ages 25 to 35, a statistic he described as frightening.
