Municipal Budget Review Addresses Increasing Costs, Needs Exercise

1 INSIDE PRSRT STD US Postage Letters ..............................................................................................2 PAID Town Clerk ....................................................................................5 Hinesburg, VT Community Police ..........................................................................6 Permit No 3 Business News..............................................................................11 Carpenter Carse Library ................................................................12 School News ................................................................................14 Entertainment................................................................................20 Names in the News ......................................................................21 Hinesburg Calendar......................................................................24 F E B R U A R Y ! " # ! $ $ % Hinesburg Artist Municipal Budget Review Series Celebrates 11th Year Addresses Increasing Costs, Needs The 11th Annual Hinesburg Artist Series Concert By Jeanne Kundell Wilson, Town Administrator will be held Sunday, March 18, at 4:00 p.m. at St. Jude Church in Hinesburg. The concert will feature the South The preparation of the municipal budget for Town Meeting • Computer / Copier / Fax – The budget includes funds to County Chorus, with guest soloist Amy Frostman and was a challenging process this year, as the Selectboard assessed replace the much needed server at Town Hall which was the Artist Series Orchestra under the direction of Rufus increasing needs and costs for town government, as well as purchased in 2001. Patrick. requests by residents for special articles to be added to the warning. • Delinquent Tax Collector – The Selectboard made the The concert will include a premier performance of The budget for town government presented by the decision to cut the funding for the Delinquent Tax the Te Deum written by Mark Hayes, Ose Shalom by Selectboard represents a 9% increase in tax funding, or Collector salary in half (from $16,032 to $8,032), and to John Leavitt and selections from Messiah, including approximately a 3.5 ¢ increase in the tax rate. In general, the make the position an hourly instead of salary position. Worthy is the Lamb and the Amen Chorus. increases across various department budgets are due to • Highway – The Highway budget represents an increase Tickets are $15.00 for adults, $10.00 for seniors inflationary increases – increases in the costs of materials, in the cost of paving material and culverts, as well as the /students and are available at the Hinesburg Recreation employee benefits and cost-of-living adjustments. Some first half of an appropriation to replace the Ford F-350 Office. For reservations, please call 482-4691 or e-mail budgetary changes of note: pick-up truck during FY 08 – 09. to [email protected]. • Board of Civil Authority (BCA) – The budget for the • Planning / Zoning – The Planning and Zoning budget BCA was increased in FY 06 – 07 in preparation for includes funding for a green-space plan and natural hearings associated with the town-wide reappraisal. The resources mapping, as well as examining rural area process is complete and the budget for FY 07 – 08 is density issues. A planning grant in the amount of Hinesburg’s reduced accordingly. $14,400 will offset a portion of this expense. • Buildings & Facilities – The Buildings & Facilities • Police Department – The largest increase in the budget One Day History budget appears to have a rather substantial increase. The for town government appears in the Police Department. majority of the increase is due to anticipated expense for This increase includes additional funding for the police Museum: the construction of the recreation path. This amount of department to address staffing issues, as well as to offer $328,637 is offset by an equal revenue amount in the competitive salaries in order to retain trained officers. form of grant funds, and therefore does not represent The Selectboard has included funding for one additional Items of Old Meet any new tax dollars. The Park & Ride project is also full-time equivalent officer in the FY 07-08 budget to offset by grant funds, with the taxpayer expense being address the immediate staffing shortage, as well as Technology of Today $10,680. Taxpayer funded projects in the Buildings & funding to complete a strategic plan in order to assess Facility budget include painting portions of the Town future growth and direction for the police department. By Suzanne Richard and Ann Thomas Hall exterior, paving the remaining section of the Town • Property, Liability and Workmen’s Compensation It took three people to heft the one hundred year old Hall parking lot (the rest will be paved through the Park Insurance – This line item under the Fixed Costs budget Patrick plow from the back of the pick-up truck through & Ride grant project), and the town-funded portion of rose substantially over the past year due to recent the front doors of the Hinesburg Community School and the Streetscape grant project, which will provide Workmen’s Compensation claims. into the cafeteria. Other sidewalk, curbing and landscaping along the west side • Town Clerk & Treasurer – FY 06 – 07 contained the Hinesburg residents of Route 116 between Town Hall and Saputo Foods. (Continued on page.4) arrived with items that were certainly easier to maneuver, but no less intriguing to display at the One Day History Museum held January 13. Exercise Your Rights and Vote! Among the trea- sures presented were Please plan to attend all school and town meetings. Be an informed voter and exercise your right to vote. fabulous dresses worn by family members, Egg grading scale. PHOTOS hefty tools from local SUBMITTED BY ANN THOMAS CVU Annual Meeting (Cont. on next page 4.) AND SUZANNE RICHARD Champlain Valley Union High School Annual Meeting, Monday, March 5, 5:00 p.m. at CVU. Australian ballot vote for CVU School Budget on March 6 at Hinesburg Town Hall, 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Hinesburg Town Meeting Hinesburg Town Annual Meeting, Monday, March 5, 7:30 p.m. at CVU Auditorium. Hinesburg Australian Ballot Vote, 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, Hinesburg Town Hall. HCS Annual Meeting and Vote Vote for School Budget at the Annual Hinesburg Community School Meeting, Front row (L-R) Lindsay Gardner, Kristin Place, McKenzie March 12 at 7:00 p.m., at Hinesburg Community School. Tobrocke, Wesley McEntee, Miles Lamberson. Back row (L- R) Thomas Keller, Laurel Hulbert-Severance, Nathalie Nostrand, Alice Reed, Keith Gallagher 1 2 THE HINESBURG RECORD • FEBRUARY 24, 2007 opportunities, and conserve working farmland. (Sadly, in only I see this proposal as a win-win situation for the fifteen years the number of farms in Hinesburg has dwindled community and strongly urge your support. from 62 to 33.) – Jean Isham Rather than list the many merits of the project here, I urge you to attend Town Meeting on Monday, March 5, to learn more about this exciting project. The Trust for Public Land Conservation Project Funding website (www.tpl.org; enter “LaPlatte” in the search box) is ETTER another excellent resource. in Proportion to Need LLTOETTER THE EDITORS – Penrose Jackson The Warning for the March 5 Town Meeting includes an article submitted by the Hinesburg Land Trust requesting $100,000 in funding for the 628-acre Bissonette/LaPlatte River Support Thoughtful Watershed conservation project. I am writing to express my support for the project and to encourage others to vote in Planning, Not Piecemeal support of the funding request. Recent Town budgets have I want to strongly encourage all Hinesburg residents to supported annual conservation spending of $7,500. While come to town meeting this year and support the Hinesburg $100,000 seems out of proportion, it in fact represents 2.7% of Farewell, Felice Land Trust’s request for funds to support the Bissonette Farm the total project cost of $3,650,000. The scale of the project is On behalf of all of us at Town Hall who were fond of conservation project. This project will entail forest and wetland significantly greater than previous conservation projects, so the Felice, the Town Feline, thank you to everyone for your kind conservation and restoration, permanent preservation of rich dollar amount of this request is proportionate to the Town’s thoughts and memories following her death on January 16. The farmland (Kaliuga and Hines farm area), public access for level of support for past conservation projects. Local support outpouring of emails, phone calls, visits, cards, flowers, front hunting and trail use, and limited housing. for such projects shows the community’s commitment to page coverage in the Vermont section of the Burlington Free The best thing about this project is that they are taking this conservation and is an important component to qualify for Press and coverage of her passing on the TV news confirms the 627 acre piece of property and coming up with a thoughtful funding from conservation organizations and individuals. fact that Felice was indeed a significant presence in our plan for the entire area rather than making decisions in a more The project has many facets. They include: protection of community. She contributed to that “small-town” feel of piecemeal manner. The richest farm land is being permanently the LaPlatte River riparian corridor and forest with almost 300 Hinesburg and she will be greatly missed. conserved for farming. The forested areas that are contiguous

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