Nichols beats Shiner; voter turnout praised

“Town meeting is alive and well in Stowe,” observed Willie Noyes, chair of the Stowe Select Board.

Noyes and the rest of the select board were looking out at about 250 Stowe residents who’d trekked into the Stowe High School auditorium by 8 a.m. and didn’t shuffle out until six hours later, except for a half-hour lunch.

Even so, residents voted 977-152 to change the town charter, allowing the annual town meeting to be held on any of the three days before the traditional date of the first Tuesday in March. The task force thought a little flexibility in the town meeting date might help boost voters attendance.

Nichols beats Shiner

In town elections, Morgan Nichols won a two-year term on the select board, beating Jacqueline “Jacque” Shiner 646-485. Nichols will replace Adam Davis, who did not seek re-election.

“I want to thank the community for its amazing support,” Nichols said. “I am deeply humbled and honored to have been elected and I’m thrilled at the opportunity to serve the town of Stowe. I want to congratulate Jacque for running a solid campaign and her past service. I look forward to getting to work on matters important to our future.”

Shiner was cheerful Wednesday morning.

“I want to thank Adam Davis for his confidence in asking me to run, and for his position,” Shiner said. “I also want to thank my supporters and those who voted for me. I wish Morgan well in her new position on the select board.”

• Willie Noyes, the current select board chair, was unopposed for a three-year term.

• Leighton Detora was unopposed for re-election as town and school moderator. Leo Clark was elected to a three-year term as a town lister.

• An $800,000 bond to allow the Stowe Electric Department to invest in infrastructure and improve its billing system was approved 909-219.

• Another electric department bond for $1,225,000 passed 719-354. The money will purchase equity that Stowe Electric believes will provide a return on investment that will lower rates over time. The bonds will be financed from electric department revenues, not taxes, and won’t affect electric rates.

Budget discussion

Voters dug into the $11,617,079 municipal budget proposal.

• Major questions were raised about a $20,000 donation requested by the Stowe Area Association — its first-ever request for town assistance.

Larry Lackey said the destination marketing organization has been “tremendously successful in promoting Stowe’s businesses, but I question the need for this appropriation. They’re a tourism marketing organization, and the town supports tourism and these businesses in so many ways already.”

Lackey moved to remove what he called an “inappropriate appropriation” from the budget.

“This is a slippery slope,” agreed Arnie Ziegel, who’s on the Stowe Planning Commission. “Stowe Area Association, for all the good it does, is a member-driven organization. If the town is going to invest in economic development, it should be under the auspices of the Stowe town government, not Stowe Area Association.”

Stowe Area Association’s supporters bristled.

“I benefit in this town, as a resident and as a business owner, from Stowe Area,” said George Lewis, who owns the Brass Lantern Inn and is on the Stowe Area Association’s board. “Stowe Area Association is marketing this town. … It’s created the opportunity for businesses to be here. My property value and probably a lot of people’s here benefits from Stowe Area Association.”

“Stowe Area Association is very important to this town as a marketing organization,” said select board member Lisa Hagerty. “We don’t have a chamber of commerce. The entire town benefits from our capital budget, which comes from the local option tax.”

The option tax, a 1 percent tax on meals and rooms, is funneled directly into the capital fund; $350,000 every year goes to pay off the loan that financed Stowe Arena, and the rest is for one-time projects that cost more than $10,000.

It stands to reason that the more tourists who come to Stowe and stay and eat, the flusher the capital fund.

Tom Barnes, president of Stowe Vibrancy, pointed out that plenty of nonmember businesses also benefit when the Stowe Area Association draws people to town.

“Many towns support destination marketing organizations,” said Patti Clark, innkeeper at the Green Mountain Inn. “This is not an unusual request.”

Voters opted to keep the Stowe Area Association donation in the budget.

• A $3,000 donation won’t be made to Maple Leaf Farm, a residential addiction treatment center in Underhill that closed down last month, so the question Tuesday was what to do with that money.

Teresa Merelman wanted to deduct that $3,000 from the budget, lowering the total to $11,614,079.

Town Manager Charles Safford said that, unless the money is deducted, it will “just sit in the budget” until voters allocate it for something else.

Other residents wanted to put that money to use, such as Lisa Senecal, who suggested a similar organization could get it.

Suggestions for what to do with the $3,000 included donating it to other organizations, such as the Children’s Room, Helen Day Art Center or Alcoholics Anonymous.

“I’m sure there are plenty of people who could use the $3,000,” Marina Meerburg said. “It won’t make a difference in our pockets.”

“I’d like to reappoint the funds,” agreed Barbara Baraw.

Voters decided to leave the $3,000 in the budget until they find some other use for it.

• Residents wanted to know why the Stowe Arena budget is $504,957.

Voters’ expectations for the Stowe Arena — that it would benefit the town financially to have a new ice rink — haven’t happened, and the feeling now is one of wanting to minimize losses.

The four-year-old rink just incurred $30,000 in unexpected repair expenses, and lost $18,000 in expected revenue.

“It’s park and rec’s responsibility to market the arena,” said Matt Frazee, director of the Stowe Parks and Recreation Department, and it’s working with the Stowe Area Association to market the rink.

“I do believe there is hope to close the only gap we can close,” said Hagerty, who championed the rink when it was proposed. “That’s the operating budget. The debt doesn’t go away.”

• The town budget passed as presented, at $11,617,079, without further debate.

• Voters rejected a $109,000 shelter at the Polo Fields, a proposal that dates back a decade. The shelter would have given athletes a place to go in a rainstorm or thunderstorm, and also provided some storage space for athletic equipment.

Concerns sprang from perceptions that the proposed 1,500-square-foot shelter had morphed from a shelter for kids playing soccer into a storage unit for athletic equipment with an open, roofed space.

Voters worried whether the shelter would actually offer lightning protection, and some took issue with the open structure, but a closed shelter would have cost more, said Adam Davis, a selectman.

“If we closed it, we’d have to put in power,” Davis said. “We tried our best to minimize the price by taking out the walls.”

Stowe voters weren’t convinced.

“Safety-wise, it’s a bad idea,” said Lionel Fay. “Lightning does funny things.”

One woman who didn’t give her name expressed concern that “10 kids could be killed at once from one lightning strike” if they were all huddled under the shelter during a storm.

“The chances are very real that someone could get hurt,” John Black said. “We’re talking millions of volts.”

Black said kids might just be safer standing in the field with no shelter.

The proposed shelter was “not intended to be a force field to protect youth from all things,” Safford said.

• Voters approved a $470,000 local contribution to a federally funded sidewalk expansion throughout the lower village, which will include reworking the River Road intersection and removing the utility pole that now sits at the junction with South Main Street.

• Voters approved spending $40,000 to restore the windows in the town-owned Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum.

The other business

In the open-ended “other business” category, when residents can bring up anything on their minds, poor internet and cellphone service in parts of town was acknowledged by all present, although nobody proposed any action.

Parking “continues to get worse,” Merelman said.

Voters batted around the idea of a public forum to discuss citizens’ thoughts about Vail Resorts buying Stowe Mountain Resort’s ski operations, but nobody bit.

Cathy Davis, a Stowe Elementary School teacher, urged more people to attend Stowe School Board and Stowe Select Board meetings.

“It’s important that we’re here, but it’s also important that we’re there,” Davis said. “It’s almost a slap in the face to pick their work apart line by line” when attendance is low at meetings where the work is being done to construct budgets.

A nonbinding motion by Tom Evslin to decrease the Stowe Arena budget by revenue deficits of the previous year was shot down with a resounding “Nay.”

Voter turnout

Moderator Leighton Detora smiled when asked his thoughts on turnout this year.

“Discussions have been spirited, the turnout is great. What do you want me to say? I’m glad,” Detora said. “You always do better when you’re invested in the process, rather than getting through it because you live here.”

Mary Evslin commended folks for coming out. This year’s town meeting drew about 100 more people than last year.

Lisa Hagerty suggested looking into Facebook live-streaming the town meeting next year to increase engagement opportunities.