BELLOWS FALLS-The town's first-ever weekend Annual Town Meeting on March 1 brought an unusually large crowd to consider two hot-button articles - consolidating the Rockingham, Bellows Falls, and Saxtons River fire departments, and providing additional funding to renovate the Bellows Falls train station.
While the two articles were debated at length, and some amendments to them were offered and discussed, in the end both articles passed as written.
The lines of voters waiting to get into the Bellows Falls Middle School Auditorium and register still stretched out the doors at 2 p.m., when the meeting was scheduled to start. Moderator Dennis Harty delayed the start of the meeting by nearly 15 minutes to allow everyone to get in.
Volunteers recorded 318 registered voters in attendance, and the crowd overwhelmingly approved all the articles up for floor vote at the meeting, the first since voters decided last June to move the prescribed time and day from Monday evening to Saturday afternoon.
Fire/EMS reorganization
After decades of debate, the town finally agreed by a vote of 191 for and 103 against - a nearly 2-to-1 margin - to approve the creation of a single municipal fire/rescue department with three stations managed by the town.
The article also included wording that the Rockingham Selectboard and the village trustees of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River create a transition committee that would "develop a detailed plan" for how the creation of the new municipal department would proceed.
The plan is to be presented to the Rockingham Selectboard by July 1, 2026.
A voter amendment to have the article tabled for another year - so the "detailed plan" could be developed in advance of a decision - got no traction from the voters, failing 86–187 on a ballot vote.
Opponents of the plan contended that going through all of the work of developing a detailed plan for a Municipal Fire Department should be done only after voters made it clear that that is what they wanted.
Train station funding
After much discussion, voters also approved $137,500 to match grant funds and loans to conclude Phase II of the renovation of the Bellows Falls train station, including removal of asbestos and mitigation of other pollution issues at the site.
During discussion of this article, several people expressed concern about the town owning a building that sits on state-owned train-yard land that is also highly polluted. Unforeseen pollution issues could create unexpected costs in the future, they argued.
But others spoke of the obligation the town has to "future generations to clean this area up." Some noted that the train depot is a direct link to the economic development of the downtown historical area, which includes the train station and the island it sits on.
Selectboard member Elijah Zimmer noted that funding and completing Stage II of the depot development plan (formally, the Bellows Falls Intermodal Transportation Center project) would leave the town with a "safe, clean, and attractive" building, suitable for future uses beneficial to the town.
One comment reminded voters that Rockingham had over the years missed other opportunities to invest in projects that would have had a long-term positive impact on the region's economy - in particular, the loss of the Steamtown U.S.A. rail museum site in 1983. It has been a thriving tourist attraction in Scranton, Pennsylvania, since 1984.
One person commented that "no one wants to invest in a town that won't invest in itself."
Citizen voices heard
Harty made it clear at the beginning of the meeting that he was "not going to stand for" any personal attacks during the discussions. He reminded the audience that they were friends and neighbors when they came to the meeting, and they should leave the same way.
Very little discussion ensued on most of the other articles, which all passed.
The proposed town budget of $6,817,593, a 4% increase, was discussed for some time.
Voters approved $99,200 to a laundry list of 17 social service organizations, from the Bellows Falls Bike Project to Youth Services, with each receiving anywhere from $500 to $26,000 from the town.
The human services spending passed without any changes. An attempt to slash $21,000 from the Visiting Nurse Alliance of VT & NH (VNA) budget failed after several people spoke up in support of the organization, with one voter noting that this was not a time for "cutting services to people who could not afford to pay for them." The amendment was soundly rejected by a voice vote.
Voters appropriated $22,000 for the Meeting House Capital Reserve Fund, and an article to authorize the town to borrow $375,000 to repair and replace the Town Hall roof and roof drains also passed after some discussion.
Louise Luring of Saxtons River offered an article in the "other business" portion of the meeting, asking that the residents of Rockingham express their "wholehearted support of the Ukrainian people" and their "embattled, brave and democratically elected" government.
The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Not the time
Voters were reminded several times by board members and citizens that the Town Meeting was not the best time to try to change the wording or intended purpose of the proposed articles.
They noted that often changes are suggested without a full understanding of all the work and discussion that has already gone into the issue.
With regard to the article to create a municipal fire/EMS department, Selectboard Chair Rick Cowan pointed out that over 2½ years the town had at least 19 meetings where the idea was debated, a process that led to the proposed article.
He and others encouraged everyone to be more involved in such planning, rather than trying to make last-minute changes to articles at the Town Meeting.
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.