Springfield Annual Town Meeting

In preparation for town meeting vote on March 4, Springfield’s Annual Town and Town School District Meeting was held on March 3 at the high school auditorium.
http://www.vermontjournal.com/content/springfield-annual-town-and-town-school-district-meeting

Springfield Annual Town and Town School District Meeting Submitted by admin on Tue, 03/04/2014 - 3:47pm By ANNE DEMPSEY The Shopper SPRINGFIELD, VT -In preparation for town meeting vote on March 4, Springfield’s Annual Town and Town School District Meeting was held on March 3 at the high school auditorium. This relatively upbeat meeting, full of rounds of good-natured laughter, lasted 2 ½ hours. About 70 people attended. The articles representing the largest sums of money were Article 7, which requested $10,745,021 for the Town Budget and Article 12, which requested $27,425,582 for the school budget. One resident expressed his enormous distress over the cuts in the school budget. Another resident who’d lived in 16 states and 5 countries was surprised by Springfield’s history of voting down school budgets, because education is so important. But as a counterbalance to this, he added that he was on a fixed income and paying Springfield taxes was difficult for him. A retired teacher asked, “Who wants to live in a town that doesn’t support a good education for their children?” Chair of the school board, Jeanice Garfield expressed the board’s hope that this school budget would pass resoundingly. She added that school administrators and school board members worked tirelessly together to create a budget that was level funded and educationally sound. One resident expressed his frustration with the way in which the town took care of the roads, saying that each spring the roads are patched and each winter the plows scrape the patches off the road and into the ditches. Town Manager agreed that many of Springfield’s roads were in a bad state and that a master plan for addressing this is in the works. An older gentleman, Mr. Bickford made public comments on a lot of the articles. The one that inspired the most applause was the talk he gave about how important a safety net is in Springfield for the needy, sick, poor and elderly. He shared memories from his youth about the overseer of the poor, the town farm, and the town forest which allowed the poor to cut trees down for firewood for free. Then came the string of requests from local agencies who serve as Springfield’s safety net, today. A brief summary of requests below: Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA)……$9,000 Visiting Nurses Association & Hospice of VT & NH……63,500 Health Care and Rehabilitation Services……10,000 Senior Solutions……8,500 Valley Health Connections……4,000 Connecticut River Transit, Inc……12,500 RSVP……3,300 Meals on Wheels……10,000 Windsor County Partners (youth mentoring program)…3,000 Springfield Supported Housing……5,000 Springfield Family Center……55,000