Voters in Chichester won’t have to worry about a snowstorm mucking around with annual meetings and voting this year.
Town and school officials met remotely last Friday to change their meeting and voting schedules, part of an effort to smooth COVID-related problems that have become a normal way of life.
With no reason to believe the pandemic will drastically improve in the coming weeks and even months, the Chichester Select Board and School Board, with a blessing from the governor, chose to postpone their annual meetings form March until May.
The Chichester School Meeting will now be held May 8 starting at 9 a.m. at Chichester Central School. On the town side, ballot voting for local offices during the new Election Day will be held May 11 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Chichester Central. The town meeting will be held on May 15 starting at 10 a.m., also at the school.
After the boards voted, the final decisions were left to Pamela Stiles, Chichester School District Moderator, and Ewen MacKinnon, Chichester Town Moderator.
The plans were allowed as a result of Gov. Chris Sununu’s executive order last month, granting towns the right, if they preferred, to postpone meetings and Election Day until the warmer months, through July, at which time officials hope COVID is corralled.
In May, voters may be asked to gather on the athletic field behind Chichester Central for the annual meetings, which will make it easier and safer than squeezing residents into one of the small classes at the school.
But, really, no one, including Chichester School Principal Jessica Snider, knows what the future holds, long term or short.
“These days, I don’t anticipate anymore,” Snider said in a phone interview. “The plan for right now is we’re looking to be outside in May, and that might allow time to solve the problem.”
The school district will vote on a $6.6 million budget, which Snider said “was a very straightforward budget. It does include an addition, a facilities manager position. . . It’s bare bones.”
The latest edition of the town warrant, found online, seeks a $2.8 million budget. Chichester holds a traditional meeting, when residents gather at one place and one time to make any changes to warrant articles and pass or reject them. Residents go to the polls on Election Day to choose local officials only.
It’s assumed the town meeting will be held outside as well. Several town officials, including Select Board Chair Richard Bouchard, Town Administrator Jodi Pinard and School Board Chair Heather Chiavaras could not be reached for comment.
Voters will be asked to finance a pair of heavyweight machines, one of which is a new plow truck, including all associated winter equipment, for $183,000. Taxpayers would raise $36,000 for the first year’s payment.
Elsewhere, the town wants $107,000 for a new dump truck, complete with snow removal equipment and toolboxes for the highway department. The money would be taken from the highway heavy equipment capital reserve fund.
Chichester is also looking to save money, asking for $97,000, raised through taxes, and depositing it into funds for a fire truck, a forestry vehicle and town facilities.
And, if approved, the town will receive about $93,000, through fire grant funding, toward the $98,000 cost of buying and installing, among other items, a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) and a breathing air compressor.
The article will be canceled if the fire grant is not approved.