ROCKINGHAM — The long discussed merger of the municipal governments of the town of Rockingham and the village of Bellows Falls appears to be off the table for now.
Bringing town and village municipal governments under one board is still the way to go, according to village resident and former School Board member Jim MacAuliffe. He authored the newest merger plan after the Merger Committee's year-long research effort. The resulting proposal failed to garner enough votes last fall. On the heels of that failure, a new merger committee, called the Bellows Falls/Rockingham Merger Proposal Committee, was formed at MacAuliffe's request under the auspices of the Bellows Falls Trustees, to revisit the merger proposal.
Other than rephrasing and shortening the new version, there didn't appear to be much difference or advantage to the village in MacAuliffe's subsequent proposal. Village officials took a month to examine the issues, and still didn't go for it.
The village of Saxtons River is not a part of the current merger discussions.
“In the past, we have not been in favor of merger if it meant added financial burdens on Saxtons River as Rockingham residents,” said Saxtons River Trustee Louise Luring. “We are not, appropriately, part of the current round of discussions.”
Luring also clarified that “anyone saying we don't want to be part of the discussions is not speaking for us. No one has asked us to join this discussion because it is between Bellows Falls and Rockingham.”
A committee had been formed to look into options to merger by the Bellows Falls Trustees in early 2010, chaired by former village president Cathy Bergman. That was prior to MacAuliffe's last ditch merger bid.
Bergman says the option committee may be a moot point now, however, with current discussions of two separate municipal managers.
“We're waiting for the study the new committee will be doing,” she said. “Our mandate [as the options committee] was to study all options [to merger] including a secession move, which I talked with the State Archivist about last week.”
“I thought it would take about a year to look into everything,” Bergman said. “But we are under pressure from the community and village to go in some direction.”
“I've been pulling job descriptions from all over New England [for municipal managers],” she added. “Hopefully, I'll have a packet pulled together [for the new town manager study committee].”
The biggest issues for the trustees and village residents opposed to the merger are a perceived and actual loss of assets within the village, as well as revenue and an equitable share of taxes from TransCanada's dam, which sits on village property, but which village Trustees are shut out of negotiating with. According to Selectboard chair Thom MacPhee, “TransCanada wants just one person at the table.”
Villagers are rankled by this.
Services taken over by the town over the past decade, such as highway maintenance, sidewalks and lights, would be difficult to disengage from. Bergman believes most of it could be either contracted out, or some arrangement could be made with the town. Water and sewer facilities are also within the village limits with revenues shared between village and town. How these revenues would be shared is still contentious, and yet to be resolved to the Village residents' satisfaction. Neither of the two merger proposals did so.
Everyone was surprised at the annual Village meeting in May, when a proposal came from the floor by Joe Brissette, who serves on the Options Committee and sat on the School Board for a time, for the Trustees to consider hiring a separate village municipal manager.
Following a non-binding vote, the Trustees took up consideration of hiring a Village Manager at their regular bimonthly meeting and mandated yet another committee to look into what it would take to do so.
Currently, Francis “Dutch” Walsh, the acting Interim Town Manager and Development Director for the town of Rockingham, has signed an agreement with the Rockingham Selectboard, but not the Village Trustees. That leaves room for trustees to consider Brissette's proposal.
The Selectboard subsequently decided to table hiring a permanent Town Manager until the Trustees hear the committee's findings at the end of July. The Trustees' decision will influence the Selectboard's job description for a municipal manager, whether it will be for the village and town, or just the town.
Over the past five years, Rockingham has had five town managers and none have lasted on the job longer than a year. Dealing with two boards can be overwhelming and complicated at best. It is difficult to maintain an equitable balance of representation in the best of circumstances, let alone when resentments between the two boards have festered for decades. Any newcomer without knowledge of this history would have difficulty negotiating such rocky terrain.
None of the recent serving managers have been a resident of either the town or village. Questions have been raised by residents whether or not this should be a requirement, as some feel a person who lived there would be more involved and savvy, and care more about the outcomes of issues between the two boards.
Emily Zervas, the reference and historical collections librarian at the Rockingham Free Public Library, said that there was no town manager position until 1927, when Sidney Ruggles became the first.
Ruggles was the town treasurer, and was appointed manager of both the town and the village, according to information gathered from the History of The Town of Rockingham, Vermont, 1907-1957 by Frances S. Lovell and Leverett C. Lovell, and town reports.
“I think [a separate village manager] will help to clarify the issues if nothing else,” Brissette said. “Two managers can get together and iron out the issues between the village and town.”
Bergman asserts that a village manager should be able to also function as the treasurer or finance director equivalent for the village. “All of the job descriptions I have found, the manager does both,” she said.
Village President Roger Riccio said there is a lot to consider if the town were to hire their own manager, including how the current municipal building, which is owned by the town of Rockingham, would be shared or not. However, he didn't see this as a problem.
“Nothing should change,” Riccio said. “Occupying the same building could build a better relationship between [the town and village].”
“The subject of merger has made enemies of people who disagreed [on the merger],” said new Selectboard member and village resident Matt Trieber.
He blamed the media, in part, for pitting the two boards against each other.
“There is a narrative generated that 'the Trustees are crazy' and 'the Selectboard is strong and the poor village has to deal with them.' Or that the village president and the Selectboard chair have special powers,” said Trieber. “It's not true. The two boards are absolutely equal in power.”
“Everybody loves their community,” Trieber added. “They all want to see what's best for their [village or town].”
If the Trustees decide not to hire a separate village administrator, it's anybody's guess where the discussions could go next; or if merger plans will be tabled altogether.