Hermon voters OK $13.5M budget

HERMON – Part two of this year’s annual town meeting was over Thursday before the roughly 70 residents in attendance knew it.

In about an hour, the town’s $13.5 million budget was passed, including the school’s share of $10.5 million, by less than 2 percent of the town’s registered voters.

“No one even asked the mill rate,” Town Manager Clint Deschene said after the meeting. “That’s always the obvious question every year.”

The projected mill rate is $15.44 per $1,000 of valuation, he added, down slightly from last year.

The total amount to be raised through taxes is $4.5 million, also down from last year by about $120,000.

Of the 24 articles voted on at the meeting, only one required a written ballot. Passing 52-15, the question asked voters to approve $668,841 in local education funding beyond what is required by the state’s Essential Programs and Services funding model.

Residents also approved, with a show of hands, an article asking for the expenditure of $500,000 to supplement a loan to renovate the middle school. On Tuesday, the first day of the town meeting, voters passed a $3.8 million bond to pay for the renovation project.

Also held on day one of the town meeting were municipal elections, though the results remained in question right up until Thursday’s meeting.

Town officials were unsure earlier this week which candidate actually was elected to one of two open Town Council seats. Louis “Buzzy” LaChance received enough votes to fill the position, but a charter amendment that voters also approved on Tuesday was believed to bar him from serving.

LaChance is the town’s snowplowing contractor, and the amendment specifically prohibited a council member from holding a contract with the town.

Town officials have since learned, however, that none of the votes cast on Tuesday concerning the charter amendments is valid.

State law requires that at least 30 percent of the number of the town’s voters in the last gubernatorial election participate in a vote to amend a town charter.

Turnout in Hermon on Tuesday fell short by about 5 percent.

So, that means LaChance can take his seat on the council, Deschene announced Thursday. LaChance will serve alongside Donald Shepley, who was re-elected to the other seat.

The council will discuss the proposed charter amendments sometime this month or in July, Deschene said.

Election results also remain in question on the school committee side of the ballot. Wendy Berglund, with 207 votes, appears to have won the race to fill Chairman Ralph Carr’s seat, but her opponent, Dawn Dixon, has requested a recount. Dixon lost by a mere 9 votes, collecting 198.

The recount likely will occur Monday, Deschene has said.