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Bristol town meeting preview 2020

BRISTOL — Bristol will hold its annual town meeting at Holley Hall on Monday, March 2, 2020, at 7 p.m., where voting on warned articles 1 and 3–21 will take place.
Voting by Australian ballot to elect town officers, approve the unified school district and regional technical school budgets, approve the Bristol Police District budget and choose presidential primary candidates will take place in the same location on Tuesday, March 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voters are asked to approve Fiscal Year 2021 General Fund spending of $922,799, an increase of $27,083, or 3%.
Public works and highway spending, if approved, would increase by $41,264, or 5.3%, to $815,365.
The Arts, Parks and Recreation Department is asking for $300,653, an increase of $16,790, or 5.9%.
Voted appropriations in support of local organizations, if approved, would remain unchanged at $105,756.
Total spending for Town Reserve Fund accounts, if approved, would climb by $22,000, or 4.5%, to $512,000.
Lawrence Memorial Library asks voters to approve $144,248 in spending, a 2.8% increase.
The Bristol Cemetery Association requests $29,000 — the same as the current year.
The Turning Point Center of Addison County is asking for $3,000 — twice as much as the current year.
In five additional articles, Bristol’s selectboard is asking voters to approve various uses for the June 30, 2019, General Fund undesignated fund balance:
•  $52,620 plus interest to pay the balance of the South Street Bridge loan.
•  $20,000 to be transferred to the Capital Building Fund.
•  $25,000 to be transferred to the Capital Paving Fund.
•  $30,000 to be transferred to the Capital Sidewalk Fund.
•  $10,000 to establish a Cemetery Reserve Fund to maintain, repair and preserve cemeteries owned by the town.
People who live in the Bristol Police District (primarily the village) on Town Meeting Day will consider a proposed budget of $452,370, a 3.5% decrease from the current year.
Two selectboard seats are up for election this year.
Michelle Perlee is running unopposed for another three-year term on the board.
Darla Senecal and Bill Mount are running for election to the selectboard seat now held by Peter Coffey, who has decided not to seek another two-year term.
Two of Bristol’s seats on the Mount Abraham Unified School District board are up for election.
Annie Denny, who was appointed to an open Bristol MAUSD board seat in December, is running to complete the remainder of that three-year term.
There are no candidates on the ballot for the second school board seat, but that seat could still be filled on Town Meeting Day by a write-in candidate. If, on the other hand, no one is elected on March 3, the Bristol selectboard will appoint someone to the seat.
The MAUSD was scheduled to hold its own annual meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Mount Abraham Union High School.
On Town Meeting Day, Bristol residents voting on town business will also, along with residents of four other school district towns, be asked to approve a $31,399,182 MAUSD spending plan for next year, about 1.45% more than this year’s adopted budget.
The proposed MAUSD budget would increase Bristol’s school tax rate by about 13.2 cents, or 8.2%, to $1.7418 per $100 of assessed property value.

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