Boards welcome new members

New members of the School Board and Select Board were sworn in Monday evening and current Select Board member Kristi Morris was elected chairman.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100310/NEWS02/3100341/1003/NEWS02        # # # # Boards welcome new members • Rutland Herald • By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: March 10, 2010 • SPRINGFIELD – Select Board member Kristi Morris was elected chairman of the Springfield Select Board on Monday evening. • Morris, 58, was the unanimous selection by his fellow board members. Morris, the manager of engineering at Lovejoy Tool Co. in downtown Springfield, is starting the final year of his first three-year term on the board. • Morris said his goal was to be "budget-minded," and noted the entire board had kept the budget very tight, with a minimum increase, and wouldn't have to cut town services. • "We're good," he said, referring to last week's decision by voters to approve the budget. • Morris is a longtime call firefighter in the Springfield Fire Department, dating back to 1973. • Select Board member John Swanson was elected vice chairman. • Town Clerk Meredith Kelly swore in the newest member of the Select Board, Stephanie Gibson, 25, who was elected to the board last week, defeating Board Chairman Mark Blanchard, the only board member up for re-election this year. • Morris and other board members said after the meeting they expected Blanchard's support of the proposed sale of the town-owned reservoir in Weathersfield contributed to his defeat. • Swanson said he heard that some people believed the reservoir the town was thinking of selling was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control dam in North Springfield. • Morris said some people were "attached" to the dam, and they rallied public support to their side. • Select Board member Terri Benton said it was a strong emotional attachment to the dam. • The Select Board wasn't the only board in town with new members Monday night. Prior to the Select Board meeting, Kelly swore in newly elected School Board members Jeanice Garfield and Kenneth Vandenburgh. Garfield was re-elected, while Vandenburgh took the seat vacated by departing Board Chairman Larry Kraft, who did not seek re-election. • Vandenburgh settled in quickly with his nomination of Scott Adnams for board chairman. Board member Marilyn Thompson nominated Garfield, who in the end voted for Adnams before being elected unanimously to the post of vice chairwoman for her third year in a row. • Board members also divvied up various committee memberships, including the Properties Committee, which Superintendent Frank Perotti noted would be busy this year after residents at town meeting approved articles allowing the board to dispose of the North School, East School, Southview and Park Street properties. • Garfield suggested opening up the Properties Committee to the community, an idea Adnams supported. • "I heard loud and clear at town meeting that there were people who wanted to be a part of that," he said. • Staff writer Josh O'Gorman contributed to this story. •