Scheuermann’s in; new sidewalks and buried lines

For the first time since she was elected in 2006, Scheuermann had an opponent this year — Democrat Marina Meerburg, who runs a translation business in town and ran on a platform prioritizing environmental and family issues, including mandatory paid family leave and a $15 per hour minimum wage by 2024.

On Tuesday, Scheuermann collected 1,366 votes, Meerburg 1,280.

“I feel like I gave it my all. … The voters spoke,” Meerburg said. “We are going to keep her feet to the fire. This shows the electorate is engaged. We raised some important issues.”

Meerburg said she plans to run again.

Scheuermann congratulated Meerburg, saying she “ran a really strong campaign. We knew it was going to be a challenge. … We’re happy. We’re pleased with the results. I’m excited to return to work at the Statehouse on behalf of the community of Stowe.”

Scheuermann says her top priority will be fighting the Vermont Agency of Education’s decision to force a merger of the Stowe and Elmore-Morristown school districts.

Exit interviews showed a town divided, but equally passionate on either side.

Lee St. Onge voted for Meerburg, saying he’s known her for 20 years and thinks she’d be more committed than Scheuermann, whose attendance record he called disappointing.

“She doesn’t show up,” St. Onge said. And, “for her to be surprised by something as important” as the school merger decision issued by the Vermont State Board of Education last week bothered him, since he thinks the quality of Stowe’s school system figures into the town’s property values.

Sean Fernandez also voted for Meerburg, saying he liked her commitment to increasing Stowe’s access to broadband internet.

Barbara Allaire voted for Scheuermann.

“It’s not a personal thing at all. (Marina) would like to do too much for outside of Stowe,” Allaire said.

Allaire, 89, said she wants to see more done for older Vermonters in Stowe, including transportation and health care.

“Heidi’s done a great job,” said Peter Riley, who voted for her. “I think Heidi has worked for all the people of Stowe.”

New sidewalks, no utility lines

Stowe voters also greenlit two municipal bonds, $3.4 million to repair the town’s sidewalks, and $3.2 million to bury village utility lines beneath those new sidewalks.

The sidewalk project was approved 2,013-545 and the utility lines were approved 1,713-866.

If the sidewalk bond didn’t pass, the utility line bond would have failed automatically, since the sidewalk project makes the utility-line burial much less expensive.

About 15,000 feet of sidewalk will be reconstructed, and some crosswalks will be moved for safety. The new designs include “bulb-outs,” outcroppings of pavement at crosswalks so pedestrians have a better view of what’s coming.

Five utility companies use Stowe’s downtown poles, and their lines will be buried under the new sidewalks.

Both bonds will be paid off in 30 years — the sidewalks from local property taxes, the utility lines from Stowe’s 1 percent local option tax on sales of hotel rooms, meals and alcohol.

Approval of the bonds is “absolutely fantastic,” Scheuermann said. “Really excited about it.”

“I look at Stowe as a tourist town,” and the town’s aesthetics are important, said Fernandez, who voted for both bond proposals.

“I think they seem to be meaningful projects,” Fernandez said.

So does St. Onge, who voted yes on both bond questions.

“I love improvement to the town,” he said.

Cam Page — Scheuermann’s 2006 opponent for the House, and a longtime chair of the Stowe School Board — said she voted for both projects, too. She says conversations about burying the power lines, and fixing Stowe’s sidewalks, have been going on long enough.

“We haven’t gotten it right yet,” she said. “I don’t like paying for them, but I really think our town would benefit” from the changes.

Jerry Griffin and Edward Frey supported both projects, too.

For Griffin, the two projects were what got him out to vote.

“It’s a town issue,” he said. “We’re putting ourselves in a little hole, but that’s what you have to do sometimes.”

Allaire voted for the sidewalk reconstruction, but against burying the utility lines.

“I don’t see it as being necessary,” she said. “I don’t see it as a deterrent for people coming to town.”

High voter turnout

Voter turnout was huge, much larger than normal for a midterm election, Stowe Town Clerk Lisa Walker said.

By 4:30 p.m. Monday, when her office closed —halting early voting — 1,174 people had requested absentee or early ballots, and 1,093 of them had voted. In addition, a few dozen people registered to vote Tuesday morning. Vermont has allowed same-day voter registration since 2014.

In Stowe, about 1,100 people voted early in the 2016 election that put Donald Trump in the White House, and in the last midterm election, in 2014, just 300 people voted early.

Why did so many people cast their ballots early?

“It could be any number of things,” Walker said. “I’m hoping people are just taking more of an interest in voting. It’s important.”

This year, Stowe’s voting system included more efficient options for voters who have mobility, visual or hearing problems. For instance, voters can choose to have ballots read to them, Walker said.

Etienne and Paul Morris of Stowe chose to vote early, leaving the Akeley Memorial Building the day before Election Day.

Etienne says she’s always voted, but after Trump’s election, it’s become even more important to her.

“I’ve always voted, but it’s like a compulsion” now, she said.

On Tuesday, when Walker opened the Akeley Memorial Building to voters, a line of about 30 people snaked down the sidewalk.

She’s never seen that before.

“It was crazy,” she said. “I felt like I was going to Disney World this morning.”

Griffin was one of Stowe’s first voters Tuesday.

“We want to elect the right people,” he said.

For St. Onge, the goal was to send a message to Trump.

“I don’t like the way things are going right now with Trump’s presidency,” he said. “A Trump Republican is a mean animal.”

Fernandez, too, wants to send a message to the president. “He needs to be more respectful and presidential,” he said. “He’s an embarrassment, and he doesn’t represent what America really stands for.”