Natalie Bankmann and Owen Carpenter-Zehe reported this story on assignment from the Bradford Journal-Opinion. The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.
The wood stove roared in the center of the one-room Ryegate Town Hall as town voters assembled for town meeting day to address their most burning questions this year: Is the budget transparent enough? And, does the town want a weed store?
Roughly 100 residents attended the meeting — people who have lived in town for 30 years or more and others who came for their first meeting. The hall didn’t have enough seats.
State Rep. Bobby Farlice-Rubio, D-Barnet, gave a five-minute speech about legislative activity this session and answered general questions. But in Ryegate, the focus stayed on local business. Even the national presidential primaries on the ballot Tuesday in Vermont took a back seat, many Ryegate voters said, to the town matters that drew them to participate.
And they had plenty to discuss.
A proposed $1.3 million dollar budget passed during the floor vote after sharp debate. Those who spoke took less issue with the budget itself than with financial transparency from the selectboard.
Jeffrey Haslett, a retired New York banker, questioned the lack of discussion over budget surpluses and how the town would use them. Haslett, who brought printouts of his calculations, suggested that Ryegate give a presentation on its spending intentions the way towns such as Cabot or Williston do.
Haslett’s comments resonated enough with fellow residents that they chose to elect him as a town auditor from the floor. David Punt, a current auditor who chose to run for selectboard this year, lost the seat to incumbent Andrew Smith. Punt also raised concerns about the town budget proposal. “The town has barely put any effort into balancing the budget,” he said. “There is an unnecessary strain on taxpayers.”
Smith, who has sat on the Ryegate Selectboard for 30 years, gave a more in-depth explanation of the budget-making process, saying it is planned more than a year ahead of time. Selectboard members “try to budget steadily over time,” he said. It’s a challenge to apply unused funds, so the board tries to avoid leaving surpluses, he said.
Ryegate, as part of Blue Mountain Union, opted to push off its school budget vote until April, in the wake of a major controversy stemming from state legislators’ efforts to address inequities in school funding, and then their last-minute changes to the funding formula. Lawmakers have allowed districts to delay votes in order to rework their annual spending plans.
Another extensive floor debate ensued in Ryegate over the use of a previously allocated $30,000 in funds for a dam project in Ticklenaked Pond. The dam isn’t happening because of permitting problems with surrounding property.
The town proposed moving that money into an existing $50,000 fund approved in 2020 for a proposed geothermal heating system for the town garage and fire station. That project will cost an estimated $425,000, and some residents thought that price tag for the renewable energy plan wasn’t cost effective, potentially wasting the unused funds. In the end, voters agreed to shift the money as proposed.
That brought voters to a decision on allowing a cannabis store in town. The proposal had some supporters.
“Everybody’s growing it, so it’s really irrelevant whether we have retail or not,” Daniel Leonard, 78, reasoned.
Many community members, though, expressed concerns about strong odors from the store and argued that a small town of 1,100 residents needs other retailers in its few available commercial spaces. Elizabeth Achilles, 50, suggested that children would be negatively affected by seeing adults patronize the store.
“The town needs to open a grocery store before a cannabis store,” she said.
The voice vote from the floor had to be repeated multiple times. Voters on each side of the issue yelled their “ayes” and “nays” so loudly that the moderator could not tell the results. By the third vote, the outcome was clear: Ryegate would have no retail cannabis — for now.