Upper Valley

The way we are paying for WABA is screwed up

I had a chance to dig out my copies of the materials handed out at the public hearings on the Joint Town-School Recreation Facilities bond of 2013. Here is a scan of WABA as conceptualized at the time, showing 6 new locker rooms on the west side. WABA Diagrams presented at 2013 Public Hearings These […]

Joint Rec Bond Project info

I put together a spreadsheet over the holidays to help me get my head wrapped around what happened with the different recreation projects.  All in all the shortfall is in the neighborhood of 3.5 million — information that could not have been developed by the citizen committee which came up with estimates. For example, they […]

Cutting Spending? We are cutting A LOT!

Our budget discussions have just gotten started and we hear about not cutting spending. How is cutting seven staff positions, not funding our reserves, and flat funding everything else not curbing spending? We can’t do anything about the 1% decline in the grand list which will make everyone’s taxes go up at least 1.25 cents. […]

What Do We Get for Our Taxes?

I wrote this in response to a friend who emailed complaining about town spending and taxes: There is no question that because Vermont is a small, northern state with a small population and a lack of industrial development it is a high-cost place to live, not just in the form of taxes, but also in […]

Curbside Recycling – How many of us use it?

We’ve been hearing ‘roughly half of the households in town presently participate in the program.’ This is based on a preliminary report studying Hartford’s solid waste management program. When I asked the company who compiled the report what their methodology was for determining the level of participation, they reported following the truck for a couple […]

Special Budget Meeting Monday Sept 23 HHS 7pm

The Selectboard of Town of Hartford, Vermont will hold a special information session about the town budget on Monday September 23 at 7 P.M. in the Hartford High School auditorium. “By the time the budget is in front of the voters in early March, dozens of important decisions have been made by town staff and […]

Town Goals

Here it is, the Selectboard has for the first time in recent memory articulated the Goals for the town, along with priorities to advance those goals. TOH Selectboard Priorities and Goals 2013

Traffic Enforcement on Rt 4

I’ve asked the town manager if we can put patrols on Route 4 and make the stretch from I-89 to Taftsville have the same reputation for speed enforcement that Woodstock has. Although I think we need a lot of different solutions to the problems of Rt 4, just getting drivers worried about getting a ticket […]

Bonding Strategy for the Municipal Building Renovation

If you’ve been to or watched our recent public hearings, you would hear me talking about how the bonding would likely go out in two tranches, and that voting on the two bonds now was necessary even though we wouldn’t be borrowing all the money in FY2014 (which ends June 30, 2014). The bonding strategy is driven by […]

Municipal Building delay? No!

The Valley News article “Looking forward to a renovated Municipal Building? Give it a couple more years” misrepresents what happened last night. Our board voted unanimously to begin the building renovation process immediately, exactly as it was presented to the voters at the public information sessions. Work on selecting a design and an architect begins […]

Budget Presentations for FY 2014

Here is the town’s presentation from Budget & Candidates Night TOH Budget Presentation FY2014

Municipal Building Renovation Bond

Here’s the flyer being distributed 2013 Bond Vote Flyer Here’s the presentation from Information Night MBAC Presentation