Carla Occaso
Barre to Revote School Budget May 12
Barre voters will soon hold a revote on the Barre Unified Union School District budget — rejected on Town Meeting Day, March 3. The first-proposed $57,829,257 budget came in $1.8 million higher than the previous year, according to the warning published in March. The new proposed budget is $57,479,257 ($350,000 less than the original). The second vote is scheduled for May 12 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Barre Town Middle and Elementary School at 70 Websterville Road and at the Barre Municipal Auditorium at 16 Auditorium Hill. An informational meeting will be held on Thursday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m. at Spaulding High School Library, 155 Ayers Street.
Red Hen Opened in Montpelier May 1
The line at Red Hen went out the door and down the sidewalk Friday, May 1, the first day the Middlesex-based bakery opened its doors at 60 Main Street, Montpelier. The main attraction could have been maple creemees with maple dust in a waffle cone. Or maybe it was the lattes, sandwiches, croissants, or baguettes. In any case, it is off to a good start. The last day at Red Hen’s Camp Meade bakery in Middlesex, where it operated for nearly two decades, was April 30.
Summer Farmers Market Resumes at 133 State
The Capital City Farmers Market returned to its outside location at 133 State Street on May 2. The market will be held on State Street from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday until late fall, according to capitalcityfarmersmarket.com. Vendors include Silloway Maple, LePage Farm, Astrobridge Artistry, Aurora Spinnery, Autumn Rayne Acres, Breadseed Farm, Community Dock, and more.
Local Real Estate Market Cools Down a Bit
The active and expensive real estate market from the first half of this decade is softening in central Vermont. The median price of the 33 single-family home and condo sales in Washington County in March 2026 dropped 8.2% to $373,000 compared to March 2025, while the number of days properties took to sell rose from 13 to 29 over the same time period, according to statistics from the Vermont Association of Realtors. The median sale price of a single-family home in Montpelier in 2025 was $468,000. The inventory of Washington County properties for sale in March 2026 rose to 131 from 99 a year earlier, although new listings in March were down slightly from a year ago, to 52.
