Published: 3/18/2017 11:40:23 PM
Salisbury residents passed all articles in little more than a half hour Saturday, days after a snowstorm prompted town officials to postpone town meeting.
Moderator John Herbert began the meeting by explaining his rational for postponing the event, and said he wasn’t sure if the day’s low turnout was because the postponement or because there were no contested ballot races and few contentious issues on the warrant.
Voters spent the most time discussing Article 14, which increased the salary of the town clerk as she plans to hold an additional eight open office hours each month. The article first had to be amended to an increase of $2,638, said select board Chairman Ken Ross-Raymond, instead of $3,633 due to a printing error.
While the budget committee recommended the article on the warrant, one member said she disagreed with the raise, calculating it to be worth an additional $10 per hour.
Town Clerk April Rollins said that calculation was only based on open office hours and not time spent managing elections – the town held five elections in 2016. The article passed as amended.
Article 15 was also amended due to a printing error. The amount was brought to $955 to place property cards online with the Avitar assessing system. The amendment and the article passed.
The operating budget of $1.14 million was approved without discussion, and all other articles passed as amended.
On the ballot, Pete Ballou was re-elected to the select board, Gayle Landry as tax collector, April Rollins as town clerk, Jennifer LaClaire and Alison Thomas as library trustees, Rick Chandler and A. Bickford as cemetery trustees, Steve Wheeler and Marcel Binette as trustees of the trust funds, Anne Ross-Raymond and Stacia Eastman to the planning board, Marcia Murphy, Sally Jones to the budget committee and David Merwin and David Kelly to the zoning board. Nancy Hayden, Jason Hood and Mary Heath received write-in votes for the budget committee, but the two that fill two positions have yet to be decided due to a draw.
Ross-Raymond recognized several members of the community, including retiring road agent William McDuffie Sr. for his years of service. Bill McDuffie Jr. was elected as his replacement.