Dorset Select Board approves town budget

Andrew McKeever

GNAT-TV News Project

DORSET ––The Dorset Select board unanimously approved a town budget to bring before voters at town meeting following a public hearing held at the dorset town hall on Monday, Jan. 30.

It calls for Increasing spending slightly to $2.3 million from last years $2.2, an increase of about $84K, about a 3.9% increase. But when other revenues and a budget surplus are factored in, it’s about  a 2.5 percent increase in the municipal property tax.

The municipal tax rate will rise about half a penny slightly from a little over 27 cents per hundred dollars of assessed property value to slightly under 28 cents. Dorset is anticipating a budget surplus of $90,000; $65,000 of which will go to buy down the  tax rate, with the rest being held for reserves.

Highlights of budget include  contracting with the Bennington  County Sheriff’s Department  for 40 hours of patrolling per week which will cost the town about $105,000 over the term of the one-year agreement. That’s an  increase of about $35,000 from last year, when the town had an agreement with the Vermont State Police for 20 hours a week of patrolling.

The town will also be shifting from a system of elected listers and hiring a  assessor who will be managing the town’s grand list. In the past the town, like many Vermont towns, had used three elected listers for that role, but this year, all are leaving at the same time and no one has stepped forward to take their places. The outcome will an expanded and more flexible service, but it will add an additional cost to the town of about $25,000.

Select board members also approved another $60,000, to expand a salt shed on Route 30, adding to $143,000 on hand. Cost of new shed is estimated to be between $150-200,000.

Residents will be asked to approve this budget during town meeting voting on March 7.

NOISE ORDINANCE

The select board also discussed a revision of  the town’s noise ordinance that it’s been working on. Controlling noise from fireworks and and occasionally, noise from special events were some of the areas that residents had complained about .The board voted to hold a public hearing on the noise ordinance that will be held on March 21.

ACT 174

The Select Board also unanimously approved a motion tell the Bennington County Regional commission that Dorset would like to be considered for one of the three towns in the county the commission would be able to offer free help with drafting  a local plan to conform with Act 174. That statute, passed by the legislature last year, encourages communities to identify locations  suitable for  renewable energy sites like solar farms or wind turbine arrays, to help meet the state’s goal of obtaining 90 percent of its energy by the year 2050. The statute gives local communities a certain amount of leeway in determining which sites would be locally acceptable.