Barre Annual Town Meeting Passes Budget, Recording Bylaw, Tables Zoning Overhaul

BARRE -- June 15, 2021, Barre's Annual Town Meeting passed a $5.8 million omnibus budget and adopted a citizen-driven transparency bylaw while tabling a sweeping Natural Resource Protection Zoning overhaul 70 to 25. The consent agenda swept through more than a dozen routine items unanimously, including a $624,478 water enterprise fund budget, an $840,745 sewer fund budget, and $64,785 transferred to the stabilization fund. Individual capital articles approved $55,000 each for a new police cruiser and a fire department administrative vehicle, $50,000 for a generator at Ruggles Lane Elementary School, and $50,000 to replace the Town Hall roof. The NRPZ bylaw, presented by planning consultant Jeff Lacy of Rural Planning Associates, would have required 65 percent open space preservation in all new R80-district subdivisions; landowners including Richard Stephens objected that the proposal had been available for public review for only two weeks. The citizen's petition by Matt Urban requiring the Select Board, Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Finance Committee, Board of Health, and DPW Commission to post video recordings within one week of every meeting passed with majority approval after three floor amendments, including a start date of April 1, 2022, moved by Select Board member Greg O'Sullivan.