Town Meeting: Hartland voters invest in paving 

HARTLAND — About 140 Hartland voters gathered Tuesday in Damon Hall to approve eight financial articles, including $2.88 million for highway and general fund expenses. The amount to be raised by taxes will jump 9.4 percent over last year’s amount, largely due to changes in the highway department’s budget.

In Australian ballot voting, the $8.65 million school budget passed 279-173. Phil Hobbie defeated John Sammel for a seat on the Selectboard, 275-157, Selectman Gordon Richardson was reelected, and Scott Richardson and Colleen Spence were unopposed for seats on the School Board.

Town Manager Dave Ormiston said that spending on paving has remained essentially flat for the past 13 years at $80,000, contributing to a “tremendous” amount of deferred maintenance.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we have slid backwards a bit,” Ormiston said. The new budget adds $40,000 to paving efforts.

Ormiston showed a map of town roads, many colored in red or yellow to indicate their condition. “Yellow is bad, and red is critical,” he said. “So this tells me that we need to do something. If we stay stagnant, that yellow is going to become red, and that red is going to become undrivable.”

Another budget item for the highway department was the return of a buildings-and-grounds position at $63,000. Ormiston said that while highway personnel had taken on maintenance duties, a dedicated position would allow the highway department to remain focused on roads.

Benefits were a source of savings for the town, as changing insurance plans saved about $55,000. Legal costs due in part to property tax challenges added $34,500.

Hartland Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Sanders spoke about the department’s $62,900 appropriation, plans to purchase new air tanks, and a decline in their ranks as people age out or get busy with families.

“We really need volunteers,” Sanders said. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

An article calling for the appropriation of $2,000 to the town’s farmers market yielded a number of ‘nays,’ though it ultimately passed. Market manager Brian Stroffolino said the money would be used to build a wood-fired oven that would be used on market days and by the community at large, but voters had questions about the oven’s design and continuing cost.

“It is really a great asset,” Stroffolino said.

Voters also had many questions for Ormiston following his update on the Hartland Three Corners project, a plan years in the making to improve the town’s central crossroads. Along with jokes about how long the project has been under consideration, residents such as Jennifer Waite worried about its impact on parking.

“We want to make sure Hartland remains a vital and busy center for activity,” Waite said. “I don’t know why there hasn’t been more attention paid to providing at least as much parking as there is right now.”

Ormiston said additional parking solutions were being considered, but that they were not part of this plan.

As the questions continued, Town Moderator Patricia Richardson cut in. “I remind voters this is not the final time we will hear about this issue,” she said to laughter.

Matt Golec can be reached at mattgolec@gmail.com.