Hartland trudges through lengthy meeting

HARTLAND — Residents approved nine financial articles at a long Town Meeting on Tuesday, including an almost $3.1 million appropriation for the highway and general fund. The amount of money raised by taxes will jump by 9.8% to cover the increase over the previous year.

Town Manager Dave Ormiston’s presentation focused on road maintenance, as it did last year. Ormiston again showed a map of Hartland’s road system and all the places where work needs to be done.

“I put it up here to show you what we’re up against,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to grade our way out of this.”

The budget for paving went up by $20,000 to $140,000, which is half of what it rose by last year. Ormiston explained that holding the financial line on paving, which the town had done for several years, can mean putting off necessary maintenance.

“Then when you do it, it costs more,” he said.

Another hire for the highway department, increased health care costs and recovery from large storm events — “things we haven’t seen historically,” Ormiston said — have also contributed to rising costs.

Two earlier articles were close enough in voice votes to require a show of hands. A $1,727 appropriation request for the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley failed, 70-48, while Hartland approved spending $1,500 on the Special Needs Support Center of the Upper Valley by a vote of 81-22.

In discussions prior to the failed vote, some voters expressed concerns that Hartland was supporting a number of health-related measures, and that they were more in favor of those that provided direct services to the town. Voters easily approved spending $13,500 to support Aging in Hartland and a community nurse. And in the final article, Hartland approved a non-binding article to acknowledge climate change.

“I want us to adapt early so we’re not left behind,” Sarah Wood said of the climate change measure.

Fire and rescue squad budgets were easily approved, as was purchase of a generator to be shared between the fire department and town garage.

The generator article was amended to change the word “generator” to “emergency backup power generation system,” as there had been a suggestion that a solar-hybrid generator might be more appropriate than a propane-fueled one.

In daylong voting, the Hartland school budget passed on a 653-374 vote, and Curtis Atkisson was elected to a seat on the Selectboard.