the town of
Dummerston, Vermont
Dummerston Selectboard
Dummerston's five-person Selectboard handles the municipal governance issues of the town. 
The Board generally meets every other Wednesday at 7:30 PM, at the Town Office. Meeting times are always warned in the Brattleboro Reformer. You can e-mail the Board at selectboard (at) dummerston.org.
From the March, 2008 Town Report...
It's been said the only thing you can count on is change. We've certainly been proving the rule here in Dummerston. Over the past very few years and months we have seen a passing of the torch in the three most key town positions - Town Clerk and Treasurer, and Highway Foreman -- and have bid farewell to Shorty Forrett, who served on the Selectboard for more than a generation. The Selectboard is also in the process of trying to fill the position of Emergency Management Director, which Larry Lynch has steadfastly held for 24 years. We've recently welcomed new Zoning Administrator, Gina Faro, to the town office. She takes over for Alan McBean, the man who reinvented the position. Town Meeting Day marks the completion of our most veteran Selectboard member, Paul Normandeau's, ten years of service, and current chairman, Tom Bodett, is also departing.
How will the town survive all of this sudden change? Quite well, thank you. With much credit going to the departing veterans, Dummerston is an efficient and well-run little town. The new people inherited a thing that was not broken, which has allowed them to negotiate and initiate new measures necessary to adapt to an ever-shifting world of modern municipal realities. Pam McFadden and Laurie Frechette run a lean and mean Town Office machine, which also manages to be warm and welcoming to both residents and visitors. Highway Foreman, Lee Chamberlin, is putting his ten years of road crew experience to good use and has stepped up to his new role of managing the Town's biggest department without hesitation. Your town, as ever, is in very capable hands.
The year has been a blend of pursuing long-term endeavors and rallying to face unexpected new challenges. The work to find and claim any Unidentified Corridors, or Ancient Roads, in Dummerston is proceeding nicely with thanks to an ad hoc group of long-time residents who stepped forward to offer what they know and do the research on what they don't. If you want to hear some great old stories and pitch in to help, the Ancient Roads Committee meets once a month. Contact Lewis White for more details.
Renovations on the Green Iron Bridge across the West River will finally take place this summer after many years of dogged effort spear-headed by board member Paul Normandeau. Paul's famous inability to take no for an answer has almost everything to do with this finally moving forward.
Repairs to the covered bridge deck are also in the offing. After much consultation with state engineers, contractors, and wooden bridge experts it appears there is a solution to repair the current deck wear and retard future wear and tear and the funds and grants to do so are falling into place.
The gravel pit on Clark Road is producing nicely and it's been discovered there may be one or two year's worth of gravel beyond what was originally estimated. That is excellent news but does not take the heat off the town to identify and secure the rights to its next gravel source and the next and the one after that. We can't see the future, but as sure as culverts clog and roads wash we're going to need gravel when we get there.
The Y2C event which so many of you attended last year spawned many exciting conversations and initiatives. Most laudable among them is the newly formed Housing Advisory Commission which is exploring solutions to the town's growing need for affordable housing. This is a problem Dummerston shares with the rest of the state and it is inspiring to see local people acting locally on this universal issue. Forming after the close of the fiscal year, the HAC membership is not listed elsewhere in this report, so allow us to recognize them here. Many thanks to Greg Brown, Diana White, John Wilcox, David Ryan, Regina Rockefeller, Cindy Jerome, Elizabeth Catlin, David Baxendale, Larry Cassidy, Andrew MacFarland, and Tonia Wheeler.
The concerted talents and energies of all our town boards and committees were brought to bear without pause when the realities of the Southern Loop Upgrade planned by VELCO/CVPS loomed sudden and large last summer. Thanks to the quick response of the Planning Commission and the expertise of our Conservation Commission members and other interested residents, Dummerston was successful in having the initial proposal of the utilities altered to a far less impactful alternative. Nothing is inked on that deal at the time of this report, and the hearings and studies will be ongoing.
The silver lining to that gray cloud was the nearly spontaneous formation of the Dummerston Energy Committee. Charged with helping the town stay current on developing energy saving technologies as well as helping the Selectboard examine the impacts of any proposed infrastructure upgrades to come, the DEC is yet another sterling example of the kind of talent and community spirit we grow around here. When you see them, say thanks to Bill Conley, Chris Derby, Diana Lischer-Goodband, Mark Stello, Suzanne Weinberg, Cary Gaunt, and Alex Wilson.
Another of the long-term goals finally achieved this year was the formal taking over by the town of Hopkins and Sugar House Roads. The town has been maintaining these roads for many years and the legalities have finally been met which will allow us to add them to the town highway map and receive compensation from the state. Much appreciation to all the neighbors and property owners who worked with us throughout the proceedings.
One sought-after goal not achieved was the effort to integrate and consolidate the services of our two libraries: The Dummerston School, and the Lydia Taft Pratt Library on the west side. While the Selectboard and School Board continue to believe this could be a good thing for the town both fiscally and from a community-gathering perspective, some change must happen more slowly than others and this one is not quite ready to turn.
Serial complaints about speeders in Dummerston, particularly on East West Road, prompted the board to take action and the Sheriff's Department has been working with us to ratchet up enforcement measures. At the same time a citizen committee continues to explore some "traffic calming" techniques employed elsewhere, which may have application for the town.
The town has realized some drastic increases in costs beyond our control, especially in the areas of diesel fuel and ambulance services. It was also brought to the board's attention by a statewide survey of comparable municipal employee compensation rates that Dummerston lags far behind the averages in what we pay our people. We were in the lowest 20% in almost all positions and the lowest 5% in some. We have good people on the job and it's in the best interests of the town to keep them there. The coming year's proposed budget gets us started on the road back to fairness. We thank all employees for their patience and loyalty and continued good service to the town, and we thank the taxpayers of Dummerston for understanding.
With these necessary increases and without the unusually high cash surplus to bring forward as in our last fiscal year, the proposed 2009 Budget looks, at first blush, to be a big spending increase. Know that your Selectboard spent countless hours going over every item on every line and we made some hard decisions to cut anything that even smelled of fat. In the end, this is what was left. Sometimes the hardest decision one makes is to pay for the things we cant live without.
We couldn't live without all of the talented people - paid, volunteer, or anonymous -- who have stepped forward to do the hard work of maintaining our vital and healthy community. It has been your Selectboard's pleasure to serve you and to serve with you.