LEICESTER — Voters in the town of Leicester will convene at the Leicester Meeting House on Monday, March 4, at 7 p.m. for town meeting. Voting by Australian ballot will begin the following day at the Leicester Town Office from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
During town meeting, voters will decide if they will approve a town spending plan of $672,282.91. This amount includes General Fund spending of $291,583, which is $10,309, or 3.7 percent, more than this year, and $380,700 for Highway spending, which represents and increase of $23,750, or 6.7 percent.
Voters will also be asked to approve an additional $50,000 for paving, which is $10,000 more than the figure approved by unanimous voice vote at last year’s town meeting.
The next day, voters will be asked to vote for Richard Reed for town Moderator, while Diane Benware and Tom Barker will seek re-election for the selectboard to three-year and two-year terms, respectively. Others seeking re-election in Leicester include Beth Swinington Ripley as delinquent tax collector, and Mike Rakowitz for the positions of Town Grand Juror and Town Agent. Donna Pidgeon is up for election to a three-year term as auditor.
Also on Tuesday, Leicester residents will vote on the Otter Valley Unified Union School District budget by Australian ballot. Voters will be asked to approve 2019-2020 OVUUSD 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.
Also on the school district ballot is 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.