Please review the Town Meeting Articles at the link below
http://www.calaisvermont.gov/index.asp?SEC=F998335D-63A4-414F-A12B-845A2998E302&Type=B_BASIC
Articles for Town Meeting Day 2014, March 4th
Town meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 4, at the Town Hall and will begin with the school meeting at 9 a.m. Town meeting will begin at 10 a.m. following the school meeting.
ARTICLES OF WARNING FOR ANNUAL TOWN MEETING
ARTICLE 1. To choose a moderator.
ARTICLE 2. To elect by Australian ballot all town and school officers so required, including two members for the selectboard, an auditor, a lister, and two Calais Elementary School directors.
ARTICLE 3. To vote by Australian ballot on the following question: Shall the Town of Calais Land Use and Development Regulations which were adopted by the voters of the town on March 1, 2005 and last amended on March 6, 2012 be further amended as recommended to the voters after public hearings by the Calais Planning Commission on September 13, 2013 and by the Calais Selectboard on January 13, 2014?
ARTICLE 4. To provide the opportunity to ask questions regarding the reports in the town report, including but not limited to the Cemetery Commission, Conservation Commission, Planning Commission and Selectboard.
ARTICLE 5. To see if the town will vote to have all property taxes paid to the treasurer, as provided by law and without discount, in two equal installments as follows: The first installment will be due on or before 4:00 p.m. 30 days after the tax bills are mailed, but not earlier than August 1, 2014, and the second installment will be due on or before 4:00 p.m. on November 17, 2014.
ARTICLE 6. To see if the town will vote to institute a two-week grace period after the established due dates of payments of property taxes as provided in 32 V.S.A. § 1674(3)(B).
ARTICLE 7. To see if the town will vote to levy an interest charge on all late or delinquent taxes of .5 percent per month from the due date of each installment as provided in 32 V.S.A. § 4873.
ARTICLE 8. To see what penalty the town will levy on all tax payments received after December 2 (the due date of November 17 plus the two-week grace period). No penalty amount may be levied prior to this final installment date. Historically, the penalty has been 8%.
ARTICLE 9. To elect all other necessary officials for the year ensuing, including a collector of delinquent taxes, a law agent, a town grand juror, a trustee of public funds, a cemetery commissioner and an agent to convey real estate.
ARTICLE 10. Shall the voters approve total expenditures of $1,240,469 of which $914,483 shall be raised by taxes and $325,986 by non-tax revenue? This amount does not include the additional monies to be voted on in the Warning articles. (See the “FY2015 Tax Request and Estimated Tax Rate” page in this town report for the expense and income figures making up this request.) ARTICLE 11. Shall the Town of Calais vote on future funding requests from Kellogg Hubbard Library by Australian ballot?
ARTICLE 12: Shall the Town of Calais adopt its budget and other monetary articles by Australian ballot pursuant to 17 V.S.A. 2680(c)?
ARTICLE: 13: Shall the town of Calais vote on all public questions by Australian ballot pursuant to 17 V.S.A. 2680(d)? Public questions are any non-monetary questions that come before the voters.
ARTICLE 14. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $13,250 for the use of the Woodbury Fire Department for its truck replacement fund.
ARTICLE 15. To see if the town will appropriate a sum not to exceed $50,000 to match a grant from the Town Highway Class 2 Grant Program to pave the final 1.1 mile of the County Road. The total project cost is $225,000 with the grant paying $175,000.
ARTICLE 16. To see if the town will appropriate a sum not to exceed $42,000 to complete construction of the North Calais retaining wall. The total project cost is $140,000. The town has received a structures grant for $98,000. At town meeting 2013 voters approved $23,978 for this project. However, the bids came in higher than expected and the project was put on hold. The town has until December 2015 to complete the project and take advantage of the grant money.
ARTICLE 17. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $6,754 to replace the culvert on Center Road in Adamant. Total cost of the project is $67,537 with a structures grant paying 90% of the cost.
ARTICLE 18. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $2,700 for the Calais Swim Program.
ARTICLE 19. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $4,000 for the ensuing tax year, to be transferred to the reserve fund established pursuant to 24 V.S.A. 2804 for conservation and other lawful purposes of the fund.
ARTICLE 20. To see if the town will authorize the Selectboard to apply any general fund surplus as of June 30, 2014 in the following manner:
1. An amount of the general fund balance, not to exceed 3% of the general fund budget, will be applied to the “Calais General Fund Contingency Reserve Fund” to cover unanticipated revenue shortfalls and to pay nonrecurring and unanticipated general fund expenses.
2. Any surplus amount remaining will go toward reducing FY 2016 taxes.
ARTICLE 21. To see if the town will authorize the Selectboard to apply any highway fund balance as of June 30, 2014 to the “Calais Highway Heavy Equipment Reserve Fund.”
ARTICLE 22. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $25,000 to be deposited to the “Calais Highway Heavy Equipment Reserve Fund.”
ARTICLE 23. To see if the town will establish a Town Office and Town Hall Reserve Fund for repairs and maintenance of these town buildings.
ARTICLE 24. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $20,000 to be deposited into the Town Office and Town Hall Reserve Fund.
ARTICLE 25. To see if the town will spend $3,000 to print, publish and mail two editions of the Calais Lakes and Streams Committee newsletter in calendar year 2014.
ARTICLE 26. To see if the town will spend $3,000 for renovations to the Adamant Community Club to be used as matching grants funds. The organization has been working with Preservation Trust of Vermont (and other entities) to obtain grant funding to comply with accessibility requirements and make necessary building upgrades.
ARTICLE 27. To see if the town will appropriate the sum of $27,950 for the Kellogg Hubbard Library for its operating expenses.
ARTICLE 28. To see if the town will appropriate the sums of money requested by the following organizations in Calais and the Central Vermont area, as follows:
Calais Community Connections $1,000
Central Vermont Basic Education $1,000
Central Vermont Community Action Council $ 300
Central Vermont Council on Aging $ 1,200
Central Vermont Economic Development Corp $ 500
Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice $3,000
Central Vermont Memorial Civic Center $ 800
Circle (formerly Battered Women’s Services) $ 700
Family Center of Washington County $ 500
Friends of Winooski River $ 300
Good Beginnings of Central Vermont $ 300
Green Mountain Transit Agency $ 859
Greenup Vermont $ 100
Home Share Now $ 400
Montpelier Senior Center $ 2,700
Old West Church Association $ 100
Peoples Health and Wellness Clinic $ 1,250
Retired Seniors Volunteer Program $ 200
Sexual Assault Crisis Team $ 200
Twin Valley Senior Center $ 800
Vermont Association for the Blind $ 650
Vermont Center for Independent Living $ 415
Washington Country Diversion Program $ 150
Washington County Youth Service Bureau $ 500
Woodbury/Calais Foodshelf $ 620
TOTAL $18,544
ARTICLE: 29: Shall the Town of Calais strongly encourage our elected officials to strengthen and update Vermont’s Bottle Bill to include water bottles and other beverage containers and use unclaimed deposits to support recycling efforts? It is estimated that updating Vermont’s Bottle Bill to cover additional single-use beverage containers would recycle 96.7 million more bottles and cans each year. In addition, allowing the State, rather than the beverage industry, to retain unclaimed deposits would allow the State to use this money (estimated at over $3 million with an updated Bottle Bill) to support recycling and other conservation programs that might otherwise have to be cut due to budget constraints.
ARTICLE: 30. Whereas the establishment of a Public Bank in Vermont will help towns reduce the local tax burden by offering low cost bonds for public works and a depository for their accounts with competitive interest; Whereas a Public Bank that makes loans and investments in Vermont’s people and our economy will help create jobs, income and economic security for all Vermonters, We call on the State Legislature to create a Public Bank for Vermont that enhances the work of the Vermont Economic Development Authority, the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, the Municipal Bond Bank and Vermont chartered community banks and credit unions by accepting deposits from the state and municipal governments and making loan programs available for students, homeowners, municipalities and enterprises to make Vermont economically stable, self-reliant and successful.
ARTICLE 31. Shall the voters of the Town of Calais adopt the following resolution to protect our children’s privacy and control over their own personal information? Whereas
1. Especially in the digital age, a child’s personal information cannot easily be retracted once shared or seized; and
2. Existing law and school policy provide that individual student information belongs primarily to each student and his/her parents or guardian; and
3. Without consent or strict legal requirement, transferring student records outside the school offensively mocks and effectively denies students’ ownership and privacy interests in their own information; and
4. Protecting our students’ ownership and privacy interests in their own records is a solemn public trust that cannot credibly or effectively be fulfilled without direct, exclusive physical control of those records; and
5. Our school officials have publicly stated that local management of student data is technically feasible without significant cost or operational disruption; and
6. Widely reported data theft, information sharing, cyber attacks, and warrantless data collection threaten the security of student records, especially when pooled with millions of others;
Now therefore, be it resolved that the town strongly urges the Calais and U32 school boards to adopt firm policies requiring that all information about individual students be stored only on local school or district premises and not be shared outside school or district staff except
1. By specific vote of the local board for each release, or
2. To the least degree strictly necessary to comply with law, or
3. With the prior written consent of the student/parent/guardian.
ARTICLE 32. To transact any other business that may legally come before the meeting.
ARTICLE 33. To adjourn the meeting.
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