Sunshine week
Raptor return
Government should embrace hybrid meetings
Ospreys begin their trek back to northern climes
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March 16, 2023
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Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
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Hinesburg town clerk retires after long career
Hidden perch
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Melissa Ross — or “Missy” — grew up in Manchester, going to town meeting day elections as a child and watching her father, Ferdinand “Nundy” Bongartz, moderate the whole affair. Bongartz, a Vermont public service legend, spent 26 years as Manchester’s moderator and spent years on the town’s selectboard, planning commission and school
board and served on the regional planning commission and the state environmental board. The apple, in this case, does not fall very far from the tree. This month, Ross will wrap up a career spanning almost a quarter century, ending her 22-year tenure as Hinesburg’s longtime clerk and treasurer. She is Hinesburg’s longest See ROSS on page 12
Charlotte Selectboard looks for budget cuts LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY LEE KROHN
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A barred owl peaks between the limbs of a cedar.
At a special meeting on March 14, the Charlotte Selectboard began talks on how to trim its $2.9 million town budget. The budget was shot down by just 35 votes, 493-458, on Town Meeting Day last week. The selectboard already shaved off nearly $160,000 from its originally adopted $3 million budget in February, and now looks to cut another nearly $150,000 from the budget. The board plans to spend the next several weeks going line item by line item on the budget along with hearing input from the public before another townwide vote on
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May 2. According to the town’s attorney, the vote will have to happen again by Australian ballot. At an informational meeting prior to town meeting, selectboard members grappled with inflation-related employee benefit increases and a town garage debt service, emphasizing that the largest cost driver was a necessary overall pay increase for town employees — a decision that selectboard chair Jim Faulkner says the board has no intent to reduce, but may need some adjusting. “We hired an expert, Gallagher See BUDGET on page 13