RepoRteR The
www.essexreporter.com
essex
APRIL 14, 2016
Vol. 36, No. 15
FREE
Prsrt Std ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 266 Essex Junction, VT 05452 Postal Patron-Residential
Voters support schools
Village approves $3.95M budget
By CoLiN FLANDERS
By CoLiN FLANDERS April showers of the snow variety weren’t enough to stop Essex Junction village voters from showing out for the Annual Village Meeting at Essex High School last Wednesday, when they approved a $3.95 million general fund budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget represents an increase of roughly $150,000, or 4 percent, over the current year and was approved by a majority voice vote on April 6. Only $2.48 million of this budget will be raised through taxes, however, since $1 million will be transferred to the Essex Town budget to fund the village’s street department operating and paving costs. The consolidation is part of an ongoing effort to merge village and town services aimed at evening out property tax rates throughout the two overlapping municipalities. Village president George Tyler the shared services initiative saved the village an estimated $267,000 in 2015. Just over $410,000 in non-tax revenue is also expected to make up the difference. This results in a 4.1 percent tax rate decrease from the current year and represents roughly a penny per $100 of property value,
Essex passes ballots
clockwise from top: 1) Bjorn norstrom of essex casts his ballot at essex High School on tuesday, April 12. 2) Andy Suntup of essex Junction (right) and Linda Suntup attend the annual village meeting on April 6. 3) Linda McKenna voices her support of Brownell Library at the annual meeting last week. toP PHoto By SABrInA LIGuorI; BottoM PHotoS By courtney LAMdIn
– See VILLAGE on page 2
It was a clean sweep for Essex’s budget season after voters approved all three proposed school budgets and their accompanying articles Tuesday. Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at both Essex Middle School and Essex High School, where town and village voters made their decisions, respectively. The Essex Junction and Essex Town school districts sported nearly exact turnout rates, with only 5.35 percent of registered voters from each district casting ballots. This year’s school budgets carried the added significance of being the districts’ last as separate entities. Next year, voters will decide on a unified school budget to serve the communities of Essex Town, Essex Junction and Westford. Along with the budgets, voters elected five candidates in seven unopposed school board elections. There remain two vacant seats. Here are the unofficial results: Essex Junction School Budget Voters approved a budget of $18.9 million for the Essex Junction School District, 282 to 101. Of 7,185 registered voters, 385 made it to the polls. The second ballot item, a
– See SCHOOL on page 2
Georgia man PFOA testing expands to Chittenden County arrested after pursuit By JASoN STARR
By CouRTNEy LAMDiN A Georgia man led Essex police on a pursuit through four Chittenden County towns late last Saturday night, Essex police said. Police attempted stopping 22-year-old Alexander Seagroves for speeding around 10:45 p.m. April 9 on the Susie Wilson bypass, police said. Seagroves failed to stop his Chevrolet Blazer, giving chase through Colchester and Winooski then on Interstate 89 into Milton, a press release said. There officers deployed a tire deflation device on Route 7, which ended the pursuit when Seagroves pulled over to avoid hitting it, police said. Seagroves, who also had an active arrest warrant, was lodged at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility on citations for gross negligent operation and attempting to elude, police said. Colchester and Winooski police assisted with the incident.
The groundwater around 10 Chittenden County industrial areas, including Essex and Colchester, will be tested for the presence of a chemical called PFOA, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced last week. The investigation follows the recent detection of the chemical, called perfluorooctanoic acid, in Bennington’s drinking water supply. A suspected carcinogen, PFOA was found in groundwater around a former North Bennington material manufacturing operation called Chemfab. PFOA is not regulated or classified as hazardous by state or federal governments. It was historically used in the
manufacturing of non-stick fabrics and surfaces but has since been phased out. The Environmental Protection Agency has in recent years begun to look for PFOA in municipal drinking supplies. The EPA required the Champlain Water District to test for the chemical in 2014, and the findings were released last year. CWD sources water from a depth of 75 feet in Lake Champlain’s Shelburne Bay and provides drinking water for 12 municipal water systems in Chittenden County, including Essex Town, Essex Junction, South Burlington and all four of Colchester’s water districts. According to CWD General Manager Jim Fay, the district only tested South Burlington’s
champlain cable on Hercules drive in colchester is one of 10 industrial sites in chittenden county around which the Vermont department of environmental conservation will be testing groundwater for a contaminant called PFoA. PHoto | JASon StArr
– See PFOA on page 3
Shumlin talks Bernie v. Hillary, pot By JASoN STARR
Gov. Peter Shumlin visits the essex rotary club last Wednesday at the essex resort. PHoto | JASon StArr
Peter Shumlin’s likely final visit to the Essex Rotary Club as governor last week coincided with the tightening of the race for the Democratic nomination for president. The night before, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders handily won the Wisconsin primary over rival Hillary Clinton, and last month he overwhelmingly took the win in Vermont. Shumlin is a Democratic superdelegate, wielding the power to influence who wins the nomination during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July. Rotarians asked if Sanders’ momentum and
Vermonters’ support would change Shumlin’s previously publiclystated support for Clinton. Shumlin’s answer was the most revealing during his 45-minute lunchtime appearance at The Essex Resort. “Bernie is a friend, so you can imagine it’s a little awkward,” he said before reaffirming: “I support Hillary.” Clinton is best equipped to handle a “Tea Party Congress” and the nontraditional security threats facing the country, he said. “I’ve watched President Obama go from a young, handsome, smiley, dark-haired, youthful president to a gray-haired, baggy-eyed, not-sosmiley president,” Shumlin said. “You don’t get like that if you have
an easy job. “Hillary is the right president for our times right now. She understands foreign policy and our complex world. She is ready to take on the toughest job in the world.” Shumlin further contrasted the two Democratic candidates by identifying himself as a “father of daughters” who notices the lack of women in chief executive roles. He mimicked Sanders’ frenetic speaking style and booming voice and hypothesized voters would shun any woman who campaigned that way. Women in the audience nodded in agreement. “It’s very tough to be a chief executive as a woman,” Shumlin
– See SHUMLIN on page 3