Hojun Choi
Berlin voters on Tuesday approved more than $9 million in bonds to fund replacements for aging sewer and road maintenance facilities, unofficial election results showed Tuesday evening.
Of the two contested races on the Berlin Select Board, one incumbent — Florence Smith — retained her seat by a comfortable margin, according to unofficial tallies.
Smith got 309 of the 490 votes, or about 63%, in the race, defeating her opponent, Ture Nelson, for the three-year term. Nelson got 168 votes, according to unofficial voting results.
For the contested two-year Select Board seat, challenger Kris Hayward received 224 votes — just three more than incumbent Muriel Morse. It was unclear as of Tuesday evening whether Morse would be requesting a recount.
Berlin voters showed strong approval for a $2.6 million bond for a new sewage pump station, with 380 people, or about 74%, voting in favor of the article and 134 opposing the proposal, according to unofficial results.
A $6.8 million bond proposal for a new garage for the town’s road maintenance vehicles also passed, but with less support. Unofficial voting results showed 278 people, or 54.2%, supported and 235 opposed the proposal.
During Berlin’s Feb. 28 annual town meeting, Town Administrator Vince Conti announced that the town staff expects about $1 million from a recent land sale to be available for bond payments related to the town garage project.
About 50 people participated in the annual meeting. Of the 2,093 registered voters in Berlin, 524 voted Tuesday, according to the town clerk’s office. The town’s population is just under 2,800 according to U.S. Census data.
Berlin resident Brett Murphy said the $6.8 million bond for the garage was among his top reasons for attending the annual town meeting.
“I was persuaded that it really needs to be replaced,” Murphy told The Bridge. “It’s outdated, it’s really not adequate for the staffing or the equipment, and it’s time to upgrade and provide an appropriate facility.
Jane Fallon, who attended the Berlin annual town meeting, said she was wary of the proposed projects because of potential economic downturn in the near future.
“I think they should consider the overall economy right now, the burden it is right now and the risks that are facing us down the pipe,” Fallon said.
Berlin residents voted 393 to 119 in favor of the town’s proposed $5.8 million budget for the next fiscal year, unofficial results showed.
The adopted budget includes a 3% pay raise for town staff members in addition to projected wage increases for the Berlin Police Department. The town and its local police union are still in negotiations, Conti told residents during his budget presentation.
Projects outlined in the town’s capital improvement plan will also move forward under the newly adopted budget.
Under the new tax rate, Conti said, the town staff expects Berlin residents to see a slight decrease on their taxes on the municipal side. For a home valued at $250,000, the decrease would be about $4, according to town staff estimates.
Berlin residents, however, are facing an increase on their educational tax. Under its proposed budget, the Washington Central Unified Union School District is projecting an increase of about $35.80 per $100,000 home valuation in Berlin, according to the district’s annual report.
In an interview with The Bridge Tuesday morning, Conti said the select board tried to keep the municipal tax portion “leveled as much as possible,” given many residents’ concerns with rising educational taxes.
State representatives whose Washington-1 district covers Berlin — Independent Anne Donahue and Republican Kenneth Goslant — attended the annual town meeting.
Goslant said he thinks the Vermont General Assembly has “done very little” thus far in the ongoing legislative session to address education, affordability, housing, and public safety.
Speaking with The Bridge immediately following the annual town hall meeting, Donahue said she wanted to hear residents’ concerns in person.
“It reminds us that, on top of anything we do at the state level, people are also having to deal with local pressures,” Donahue said.
