Enfield -- Residents in the five Mascoma Valley towns that educate their children in a cooperative school district will find out what the district would look like if Enfield pulled out of the group, thanks to voters in that town who yesterday authorized study of the matter.

In an 84-37 decision, Enfield Town Meeting voters approved conducting the feasibility study.

“This is a really important first step,” said resident Sam Sweet, whose petition put the question before voters.

Voters yesterday also approved taking a 75-acre parcel out of a special tax district they created four years ago to spur downtown development, approved a $4.6 million budget that won't raise the tax rate and turned down a trash proposal that would have charged residents who disposed of more than two garbage bags a week.

The four-hour session brought 5 percent of the town's 3,057 registered voters to Enfield Village School.

In debate on the school study article, Sweet said overcrowding at Mascoma Valley Regional High School and concerns that the district, which also includes the towns of Canaan, Grafton, Dorchester and Orange, could lose its accreditation were reasons to consider withdrawal. A backdrop for yesterday's decision was the defeat four days ago of the $20.4 million budget to fund the Mascoma Valley Regional School District, which, in addition to the high school, also operates Indian River School for students in grades 5-8, and K-4 schools in Canaan and Enfield.

Only Enfield and Orange approved the budget, with the spending plan defeated in the three other towns.

This marks the second year in a row that district voters turned down its budget, leaving in place a default budget, which is basically the current year's budget with certain adjustments as required by law.

The budget defeat was clearly on the minds of some voters as they decided to study going it alone.

“Let's not be tied with a ball and chain to other communities that do not support education,” said Ken May, an Enfield police officer who yesterday was in uniform.

Claudette Peck, who like May said she has children in the schools, urged voters to approve the study. “It's a pretty serious discussion. If we wait any longer to explore it, we're going to run out of time.”

But not everyone supported the study.

Enfield would have a difficult time affording its own school district and the four towns it would leave behind would also have financial difficulties, said resident Jim Gerding, chairman of the Mascoma Valley District Board.

Gerding said he, like others, was disappointed over last week's budget defeat and challenged those at the meeting:

“Did all of you people come on Tuesday and vote in the affirmative?” he asked to scattered calls of “yes” from the crowd.

The chairman called for the defeat of the study but added that whatever the vote, “I will support it.”

He said the study -- for which there is no money set aside -- would be done by a committee made up of one School Board member and one Selectboard member from each of the five towns.

They would have six months in which to complete their work.

Each of the district towns would get to vote on a move by any town to leave the district and the decisions could be appealed to the state Board of Education, Sweet told the meeting.

Voters also decided to take the 75-acre Laramie Farms property out of the 500-acre Tax Increment Financing District on a voice vote.

The article, brought before residents on a petition filed by resident Debra Truman, means that property taxes from the land, where a 154-unit apartment complex has been proposed, could go to the town and school coffers and not be set aside to be used only for infrastructure improvements in the TIF district, which runs along Route 4 in the downtown area.

Mascoma School Board member Eileen Kirk supported passage of the article, saying the school district could use the tax revenue.

But resident Nancy Smith asked the meeting to vote down the request, saying it was “shortsighted.”

She said the town needs a sewer line in the district, which tax revenue from TIF district properties would pay for.

Some residents said the matter wasn't timely because the Laramie Farms land owners haven't submitted plans to develop the property.

Voters approved the town budget without discussion after a presentation by Budget Committee Chairman Lee Carrier in which he said the spending plans over four years have added an average of $11 a year to the tax bill on a house valued at $200,000.

“You lost a pizza,” he said of the cost.

But this year the budget won't raise taxes, officials said. Town employees are receiving 2.5 percent raises in this fiscal year, which began on Jan. 1.

The budget committee recommended passage of the trash article, called a “solid waste reduction program,” but the Selectboard recommended its defeat.

The proposal, which failed on a 84-64 show-of-hands vote, would have had residents receive 110 trash bags at no cost each year -- a few more than two a week -- to use for the town's curbside pickup. If they needed more bags, residents would pay a fee, which hadn't been set, for each additional bag.

The plan would encourage recycling and help extend the life of the Lebanon Landfill, where Enfield's trash is brought, said resident David Stewart, a member of the Budget Committee, who filed a petition to get the matter before voters.

“We have to think about reducing the amount we are throwing in to the landfill,” he said.

Resident Lori Saladino and others echoed Stewart. “It will hold us all accountable for what we throw out,” she said.

But resident Cecilia Aufiero disagreed. “I don't want one more thing to deal with,” she said.

Selectman John Kluge said his board was split 2-1 on the matter. He and Don Crate opposed to the plan and outgoing Selectwoman Rebecca Stewart favored the proposal. The Budget Committee voted 5-3 to support the plan, said Carrier.

Kluge said the plan needed “more extensive study” before it is implemented.

But Rebecca Stewart said that the plan would end up saving residents money.

Resident David Tatham said he favored recycling but didn't like being told he had to use certain bags.

“This hasn't been studied long enough,” he said. “We don't really know what we're getting into.”