Thetford Town Meeting 2026 in review

On Saturday, February 28th, the Town once again convened its annual Town Meeting hosted this year by Thetford Academy in its spacious gymnasium. It is worth noting that this is 264 years since the first Vermont Town Meeting was held in Bennington, 15 years before Vermont achieved statehood. Town meetings have been held ever since, traditionally on the first Tuesday in March. However, the Vermont Secretary of State now allows towns to hold their Town Meeting and transact non-Australian ballot-related business on any of the three days directly preceding the first Tuesday, if the voters so wish. With an eye on declining voter attendance, Thetford moved its Town Meeting to the Saturday before the first Tuesday in March.

On the subject of attendance, new Town Moderator Sarah Aspell devoted a lot of time and energy prior to Town Meeting to a campaign to increase voter awareness and attendance. She became a familiar figure at the recycling center, talking to people and learning about attitudes and experiences surrounding Town Meetings past. She even held an open house or two at the TCCA building, encouraging residents to stop in if they had Town Meeting questions. The response wasn't huge, but some "very interesting" discussions took place. 

Sensing that some voters felt intimidated by the formalities of the meeting's parliamentary procedures, Sarah also prepared a one-sheet "pocket guide" to the essentials — rules of debate, how articles are handled, addressing the meeting to comment on an article, voting, and other questions. As a result, 203 people attended, compared to a probable 181 in 2025. It is a "probable " number since it is based on a vote count at one point during that meeting. Formal numbers of attendees may be gleaned from check-in sheets; a count is not perfect since people drift in and out over the course of the day.

Following the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance by Noah Brown, Class of 2031, and the singing of the National Anthem by Thetford Academy student and soloist Julia Bonnett, the meeting got down to business weighing whether to approve the proposed town budget expenditures for 2026.

The biggest item is always the Town's General Fund budget, which increased by 4.662% to a proposed amount of $1,559,806 in 2026. This pays for general administration (Town Manager, Town Hall staff), recreation (staff, programs, Treasure Island), public safety (police, emergency management), and  "fixed costs" (regional and county dues, the bond to replace the Lake Fairlee dam, the new social services coordinator). In response to a complaint from the floor that employees’ raises were too high, Town Manager Brian Story acknowledged that there are some big wage increases among town employees. However, if the town wants to retain its well trained and experienced staff, their wages have to keep up with what is offered by other towns since there is a lot of competition to attract workers. 

Brian also explained that $60,000 of surplus funds were used to reduce the dollar amount to be raised through taxes. This was because the 2025 budget included the salary for a third police force member, but that position was not filled. While the police force incurred extra expenses due to being understaffed, there were sufficient funds left to offset some of the 2026 budget.

Another resident asked if the voters can reduce the budget bottom line by an amount equal to a particular line item, even though the meeting cannot vote to eliminate or change that line item specifically. The answer to that question was yes. 

One of the more pointed questions was why the Town Manager got a raise of 11% while most employees received a 4% or 6% raise. This question was fielded by the Selectboard Chair Sharon Harkay. She explained that the single unionized member of the town's two-person police force negotiated a salary increase with union help that caused a domino effect whereby the compensation for both Police Chief and the Town Manager required adjustment to remain appropriately higher than that of the police sergeant.

The voice vote on this article appeared to indicate that the "Ayes" outweighed the "Nays." To be certain, Sarah called for a standing count, which gave the result of 149 in favor and 20 against. The General Fund budget passed.

There was less to question in the Department of Public Works budget which increased by 4.656% to  a proposed figure of $1,542,391. Brian explained that while the DPW budget was relatively stable, there are deferred road maintenance costs that will have to be addressed and that the cost of paving continues to go up. Another expense comes from supply chain delays for new trucks. The two-year delay in delivery of a new dump truck translated into extracting two more years of service from the truck needing to be replaced  that was already at the end of its useful life. This, in turn, translated into costly repair bills to keep it running. 

After the Town manager affirmed that work to repair Tucker Hill Road will start this year the DPW budget passed unequivocally.

The next article, to appropriate $379,950, an increase of 6.51%, for the Thetford Volunteer Fire Department, elicited a lengthy statement from Heinz Trebitz about the Town contract with the TVFD and its associated memorandum of understanding. He perceived a lack of transparency about the finances of the TVFD, even though they presented a detailed budget in the Town Report. He asked that they produce an annual financial report and an audited report. Fire Chief Chad Whitcomb commented that the TVFD Board of Trustees holds a monthly meeting that residents are welcome to attend to have their questions answered. Rick Barrows appreciated their budget report but hoped they would, in the future, show their actual expenditures as well as their budgeted expenses. Several residents came to the microphone to voice their appreciation for the excellent service, time commitment and long hours expended by the TVFD and its volunteers. Martie Betts commented that if the Fire Department became a town organization (and thus transparent) it would cost a lot more than $380,000. A call to end discussion was approved by a two-thirds majority. The discussion was ended, and the article passed.

Articles 6 through 21 covered various appropriations for services like the Library Federation, the Lake Fairlee Association, the Thetford Community Nurse, Tri-Valley Transit, and non-profit social service organizations. All were overwhelmingly approved. The total amount appropriated was $59,704, an increase of 7.58%.

Under the last article, to transact any other business of the Town, Henry Nichols spoke to the previous year's Apartheid-Free Resolution and the work towards developing related Town policies in 2026. Sarah read the text of the 2025 motion, "We affirm our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people. We oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and We declare ourselves an Apartheid-free community and to that end, We pledge to join others in working to end support to Israel’s Apartheid system, settler colonialism, and military occupation." A motion was made to reaffirm the vote of 2025. It passed unanimously.