BRANDON — Brandon voters will convene at the Town Hall on Monday, March 4, for the annual town meeting at 7 p.m. Australian ballot voting will take place the following day at the Town Hall between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
On March 5, voters will be asked to approve a proposed budget of $2,702,555, an increase of 0.92 percent in expenditures over last year. Voters will also be asked to authorize $50,000 in paving funds.
Among the significant changes in this year’s budget is the creation of a new assistant to the recreation director position, which will largely be paid for by allowing Bill Moore, who does double duty as recreation director and economic development director for the town, to charge the state for his time as Economic Development Director for the Segment 6 project while his recreation director clerical duties are performed by the new assistant.
Selectboard members Seth Hopkins and Brian Coolidge are running for re-election unopposed. Voters will be asked to decide between Tim Guiles and Dennis Reisenweaver for an open three-year seat.
Also to be voted upon: Bill Moore is running unopposed for Town Moderator; Courtney Satz is running unopposed for Trustee of Public Funds; and Carol Fjeld is running unopposed for re-election as Library Trustee.
Voters in Brandon, like the other towns in the Otter Valley Unified Union School District, met at the Otter Valley Union High School on Feb. 27 for the annual meeting, and will vote by Australian ballot on Tuesday, March 5. Ballots from all district towns will be taken to the Brandon Town Hall after polls close, commingled and counted by the Board of Civil Authority.
Voters in the district will be asked to approve 2019-2020 spending of $19,935,847, which represents a 3.7 percent increase in total spending over last year. That is an increase of 2.08 percent per equalized pupil over the previous year.
The board will also ask voters to approve a safety, security and operations improvement bond not to exceed $2,934,000. The bond is for improvements at Lothrop Elementary, Neshobe Elementary and Otter Valley Union High School.
Residents in the six Otter Valley towns will vote on all eight school director positions regardless of which town they live in. There will be one contested school board election: Derek Larsen and Mike Lufkin are both running a three-year seat representing Brandon. Other school directors up for election will be Jon Rasmussen for a one-year seat in Brandon, Laurie Bertrand for a three-year seat in Sudbury, Bonnie M. Chmielewski for a three-year seat in Pittsford, Barbara Ebling for a three-year at-large seat, and two seats in Goshen are open but don’t have anyone on the ballot.