Our great Selectboard Secretary sent these notes along with the minutes of the board’s joint meeting with the Budget Committee. (As always, you can view meeting minutes in this site’s Documents section.
Article One on the warrant is the election of officers. Voting for officers will be done at the Orange Town House on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, 11a.m. to 7p.m., with the same COVID-19 procedures as the 2020 voting days.
“Traditional Town Meeting,” the following day, Wednesday the 10th at 7 p.m., is the gathering of townspeople to deliberate and vote on the rest of the warrant articles. This cannot be done at the Orange Town House—its size simply will not accommodate the safety requirements that are necessary during this time. Town meeting on the 10th will be held at the Mascoma Valley Regional High School auditorium. By statute, if a town meeting is held out of town, the town must provide transportation, for those who request it, from the traditional place of voting [Orange Town House] to and from the place of voting [high school]. We are presently looking into options. When you receive your town report by mail in February, all plans will be in place and they will be included with your report.
Hopefully next year I will be emailing you instead with the plans for our customary pot luck community supper that has always preceded town meeting. Until then, we shall remain resilient, hopeful, and vigilant!
Every five years, the town votes to have the Moderator appoint an ad hoc salary study committee. The committee consists of five Orange residents, two of whom may be officers or employees of the town (excluding members of the Select Board, Tax Collector, Treasurer, Town Clerk, and Select Board Secretary), to study the salaries of the Town officers and employees and report their findings and recommendations in the next annual Town Report, including a warrant article that they deem appropriate. Moderator Dan Hazelton asks that you contact him if you have an interest in being on the committee. Dan can be emailed at dmhazelton@hotmail.com.
Another ad hoc committee this year will be the updating of the Orange Hazard Mitigation Plan; it is funded by a matching grant, but, as in the past, the “in kind” volunteer hours that townspeople and officers put in have always paid our half—which results in no town money needing to be raised to pay for the update. Please consider volunteering. Contact the Select Board for more information. From what I understand at this time, the meetings will be held at the Town House with the option to participate with Zoom. Details to follow.