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 7:00 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.
The Selectboard is comprised of the following elected officials:
| Andrew MacFarland (Chair) | macfarland (at) dummerston.org |
| Tom Bodett (Vice Chair) | bodett (at) dummerston.org |
| Wayne Emery (Clerk) | emery (at) dummerston.org |
| Greg Brown | brown (at) dummerston.org |
| Zeke Goodband | goodband (at) dummerston.org |
From the March, 2009 Town Report...
It's been a strange year. It started with one of the toughest winters in recent memory, diesel fuel prices at an all-time high and all of the town costs at worrisome levels. Mutterings about inflation were heard in town offices. The year ended with diesel fuel prices near the lowest level in a decade, a full-blown recession, the state freezing highway allocations to towns, at least temporarily, and speculation about new federal money to help with infrastructure repairs. In the interim the new Selectboard reorganized, replacing senior member Paul Normandeau and Tom Bodett with new members Pat Stello and Wayne Emery. Lewis White assumed the Chair, assisted by Vice-Chair Andrew MacFarland and Clerk Pat Stello. Unfortunately, in the spring Pat accepted a job out of state. After hearing from a number of qualified candidates, we appointed veteran Jack Manix to fill her seat until next Town Meeting and elected Cindy Jerome to replace her as Clerk.
One of the first tasks was to appoint a new Emergency Management Director. Dawn Hubbard was selected to replace Larry Lynch, who had served the town for 24 years. In addition, Charlotte Annis replaced Gina Faro as Zoning Administrator at the end of 2008.
The Board decided to seek intervenor status in the Public Service Board hearings on the southern loop, the VELCO proposed expansion of the transmission line running through Dummerston, and formed a committee, chaired by Cary Gaunt, to work with the Energy Committee. Dummerston filed expert witness testimony, actively participated in the hearing process and made sure we were aware of developments in the hearing process. At this writing the hearings are completed but there has been no decision.
The Highway Department had a busy year. Last winter sorely tested the resources and budget. The crew did a great job responding to the numerous storms and Lee Chamberlin miraculously managed to come in just under budget. Over the summer the crew relocated a part of upper Stickney Brook Road to bypass a section that was collapsing into the adjacent ravine. In addition, Lee, with able assistance from Laurie Frechette, applied for and received a number of small grants to improve Dummerston roads and drainage.
A group of residents, the Traffic Calming Committee, has been working to improve safety on Dummerston roads. This year they were awarded a grant, which will allow signage and traffic calming improvements. There have been numerous discussions with the Windham County Sheriff's Department this year to express concerns about speeding on Dummerston roads. Staffing shortages have had an adverse impact on the amount of time the Department has spent in town. In addition, the Sheriff informed the town that next year his department will not be providing animal control services to Windham County towns. Consequently, the Board has reduced the amount of money allocated to the department and is looking at alternatives for animal control.
The VT Department of Buildings and General Services, which maintains the old regional library building on Route 5 informed the town that they wish to turn over ownership of the building to the town at the end of 2009. A number of questions remain unanswered and at this time there is not enough information available to determine if the town should accept ownership. There will be continued discussions over the next year.
The Dummerston Housing Advisory Commission, established last year to promote affordable housing opportunities in Dummerston, communicated concerns from the VT Housing Authority, which owns Charette Mobile Home Park. Charette Park has been relying for water on wells in Dutton State Park. Well yields have decreased to the point that water is now being trucked in weekly. The state is in discussions with the town about ways to work together to preserve the 15 homes in the park, which represent a large percent of the affordable housing in Dummerston.
Some of you may remember that last year the Board determined that many categories of town employee were paid substantially less than the average for employees in the same jobs in other towns in the state and region. This year's budget contains, for a second year, an incremental attempt to raise salaries for Dummerston employees to the mean. We're fortunate to have dedicated and competent employees who do a great job. We want to make sure we have a salary structure that will allow us to treat people fairly and recruit successfully when necessary. We've been going over the budget line by line during the last month or so and have had many discussions about our responsibility to be fiscally prudent in what is shaping up to be a hard year for many residents. You can be confident that the budget in this report is as lean as we think is in the best interest of the Town.
We want to end this report by acknowledging and thanking the many talented and dedicated people who contribute to making Dummerston a town that works - elected officials, committee members, volunteers, and the numerous people who take on a task just to make sure it's done right. These efforts make serving on the Dummerston Selectboard a pleasure.