M.B.Neisner moderating the Killington
2007 Town Meeting

M.B.Neisner moderating the Killington
2007 Town Meeting

Killington's exercise in civic responsibility went off with few controversies at 2007 Town Meeting held today. Well over 200 people, including 190 local voters, attended the meeting held in the Sherburne Elementary School gymnasium

The day started with the school board meeting, where except for a few grumbles about the State of Vermont's education finance law, Act 68, there was very little discussion. Primary discussion on the school budget centered on the computation of equivalent students, and the impact of tuition students on the calculation of per student expenses. In a voice vote, the town passed a school budget of almost $1.3 million to fund education of the towns children.

At approximately 10:10 AM, M.B. Neisner called the Town Meeting to order. This year, the meeting was a model of civility with no ad hominum disagreements taking place. In the selectman's race, Jim Blackman beat out Chris Karr to win the seat being vacated by Walter "Butch" Findeisen. Of the almost 200 votes cast, Jim Blackman won the seat with about 59% of the vote cast in his favor. Congratulations Jim!

The item which brought most residents to Town Meeting, item 7 to assess a $0.03 real estate tax to fund economic development, barely warranted a discussion. Chris Karr and Bill Bauer, the local businessmen who originally proposed the measure, asked the town to delay voting on the measure to allow for more time to develop a community consensus on funding, and to understand the ramifications of the sale of Killington by ASC to SP Land. On a vote by ballot, just over 50% of those voting agreed to table the issue until a later date to allow more time to consider the measure. This short circuited further debate on the item at the Town Meeting. As it now stands, a request was made at Town Meeting for a committee to be formed to study the matter. When the study is completed, it will be up to the selectmen to call a special town meeting to consider the matter, or let the issue drop. It will be interesting to see how this article evolves over the coming months.

The only real period of acrimony occurred when State Representative Dr. Harry Chen addressed the town meeting. Several citizens pressed Dr. Chen to get more aggressive in representing the wishes of the town to the State Legislature in Montpelier. Dr. Chen did commit to reflect the towns wishes to the leadership in Montpelier, with the caveat that he represents 4 towns and he needs to make sure to represent all of the people in each town. While it was a very honest statement, it was not well received by some of Killington's residents. At the end, however, Dr. Chen was thanked for venturing out into a perceived hostile crowd, and given a warm round of applause upon finishing his talk.

On the skiing side of the resort, temperatures this morning at the inn at 9:00 am were a balmy -7F with strong gusty winds. By 1:30 PM when I left town meeting, temperatures had risen to a warm -1F in bright sunshine. It was probably a good day to be inside. Let it snow!