Unofficial Town Meeting Results 3/4/06

ARTICLE 3 - To act on the reports of the several town officers.

Bob Horr and Ed Nuttall made numerous presentations regarding town business and several prompted considerable discussion. Both Ed & Bob will be leaving the Selectboard when a replacement is elected on March 7th.
Jim Nixon is show below commenting on Speed Limits:

and Julie Filberti and Carolyn Branagan are shown discussing Julie's concerns:

Carl Jones, Jim Nixon and Julie Filberti and Joel Gluck were among those that had concerns regarding the speed limit on some of the roads. Carolyn Branagan got with these individuals to gather more information to pursue their concerns further. Brian Dunsmore and Sheriff Norris were also there to answer questions that might come up. I spoke with both of them and they told me that they would be happy to hear from the people regarding any concerns they might have

ARTICLE 4 - To see if the voters of the Town of Fairfax will approve $68,308.00 to contract the Franklin County Sheriff for a 40 hour a week, 1 year contract. It passed by voice vote unanimously.

ARTICLE 5 - To see if the voters of the Town of Fairfax will authorize the sum of $3,000.00 for the sidewalk improvement fund which has a balance of $6,853.00 as of 12/31/05. This will accumulate for projects approved by the Selectboard. This was also approved by voice vote easily

ARTICLE 6 - To see if the voters of the Town of Fairfax will approve $43,869.00 for a rest room facility to be located in the Fairfax Recreation Park.

There was quite a bit of discussion on this. Someone made the motion to table this article and it was quickly seconded. Not being very politically knowledgeable or having a real keen sense of hearing it was a yes or no vote. Whatever happened it was not tabled and discussion went on for some time. Carol Lizotte made a presentation on the Rec Park. Some of the things that were brought up were that there was no running water in the rest room and the impression I got was that it was an indestructible Porta Potty. I believe the lack of running water to wash one’s hands, plus the fact that it was not what most people had thought it was going to be for the $43,869 caused it Not To Be Approved 54-32.

ARTICLE 7 - To see if the voters of the Town of Fairfax will approve $18,140.00 for a basketball court to be located in the Fairfax Recreation Park.

Betty Poulin had a concern about the fact that it was going to be quite out of sight and felt that the Basketball Court in the parking lot at the school should suffice -- A very close vote defeated this with a hand count of 34-33.

ARTICLE 8 - Will the Town of Fairfax eliminate the office of Town Auditor?

Once again there was quite a bit of discussion on this. Becky Neopolitano, one of the auditors gave a positive presentation on it. Donna Meunier, Town Treasurer expressed a concern about the complexity of new systems coming on board. Jeff Blake spoke about the fact that from a $285,000 budget a few years ago, the town now had a $1,300,000 budget. There has not been an outside audit in 18 years and again, Donna is very capable, but apart from the fact that she is concerned with the complexity of things today, she too will also be retiring in the future. The question was also asked regarding what would happen if this was voted down and Jeff Blake said that 45 days from now or when an outside CPA was hired the auditors positions would be eliminated. Again a very close vote with the auditors being eliminated with a vote of 36-31.

ARTICLE 9 - To see if the Town of Fairfax will authorize the sum of $9,087.00 for:
Champlain Valley Agency on Aging, Inc - $1,400.00
Vermont Association for the Blind - $250.00
Northwest Regional Planning Commission - $3,087.00
Home Health Agency. Inc - $4,350.00

Only one question was asked by Paul Lavallee on this and that was in regards to the Northwest Regional Planning Commission and what they do for us. Ed Nuttall fielded the question and the article was easily Approved by voice vote.

ARTICLE 10 - To see if the Town will authorize the sum of $5,000.00 for the purpose of providing fireworks on July 4th.

Usually I get up and give my little talk regarding this, but this year Betty Poulin got up and stated she thought that there were better places to spend $5,000 than for the 17 minutes of fireworks. I don’t know how close it was by voice vote because I could only hear my own voice voting “No.” Surprise, Surprise – This was also approved.

ARTICLE 11 - To see if the Town of Fairfax will approve the sum of $19,928.00 in support of the Fairfax Rescue toward their operating expenses. After a short presentation and a few questions this article was approved with no opposition by voice vote.

ARTICLE 12 - To see if the voters of the Town of Fairfax will authorize the sum of $800.00 to offset operating expenses for Fairfax Success By Six.

Lisa Stone made a short presentation here and this article was also Approved with no opposition.

At this point, I left the meeting, but the other articles left always pass, so I suspect they did this year also.