HALIFAX — Town officials opened their Town Meeting explaining how a scenic voyage by the town report to New Jersey required the town to validate decisions made at the Town Meeting within a month.
According to Town Moderator Patty Pusey, the town routinely mailed its town report to residents as “media mail,” in postal parlance. On the boxes of reports, officials wrote a note explaining to distribute the town reports from the Brattleboro post office, rather than send them to the bulk mail center in White River Junction, as Halifax residents have either Brattleboro or Jacksonville mailing addresses.
As Pusey explained, the reports were trundled off to White River Junction. From there they took a trip south to the warmer climes of New Jersey, where the U.S Postal Service handles media mail for the Northeast.
Boxes can sit in the center for weeks, she said.
“We don't know where they [the reports] are now,” said Pusey, describing the reports' disappearance as “a moderator, selectboard, and town clerk's nightmare.”
Vermont law requires voters have access to the town meeting warning about 10 days prior to the meeting. With the reports missing in action, Halifax voters did not have an opportunity to see their Town Meeting Warning.
Pusey said that following consultations with the Secretary of State's office, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, and the town attorney, Halifax officials elected to hold town meeting with photocopies of the town warning for residents to view, and to hold a meeting in 30 days to validate Town Meeting Votes.
During brief presentations by department heads, Selectboard Chair Lewis Sumner said that the town would start work shortly on the final bridge damaged by Tropical Storm Irene two summers ago.
Voters applauded Road Commissioner Bradley T. Rafus's announcement that the town would pave and repair the Green River Road between Hatch School Road and Moss Hollow Road, also severely damaged by Irene.
Of the 551 registered Halifax voters, 164 voted. Patty Pusey, who has served as Town Moderator and School Board member for 17 years, won by a landslide, with 154 and 151 votes, respectively.
In the lone Selectboard race, incumbent Edee L. Edwards won a three-year seat with 117 votes. In a five-way race for a three-year School Director seat, Homer “Chum” Sumner won with 136 votes.
Voters approved all budget questions. They also approved an increase of $500 for a total of $3,500 for the Whitingham Free Public Library “in recognition of services provided to the residents of Halifax.” Halifax does not have a library, but residents can use Whitingham's library.
Voters shot down an article approving a new design for a new town seal.
According to Pusey, audience members said they liked the idea of a new town seal but not the design presented. Under new business, residents voted to open a design search through either a town-wide or school-wide contest.
Voters rejected an article to increase the three-member Selectboard to five. “I used all my parliamentary procedures on that one,” said Pusey of the long, circular discussion.
The discussions were long, and some said wearying, but Pusey spoke for what she said was at heart so exciting about the day:
“Town Meeting is the purest form of democracy,” she said. “It is an honor to be the moderator at Town Meeting.”
Pusey described Town Meeting as the “will of the people, it's their meeting.” When challenged during meetings by tricky situations, she said she reminds herself that if town officials follow the citizens' will during Town Meeting, they can't make a mistake.