Town Meeting Season is Upon Us
‘Tis the Town Meeting season! We face another year of unprecedented and unusual Town Meetings due to COVID-19 restrictions. In pre-pandemic times, BDCC/SeVEDS staff would be present at your community’s Town Meeting to answer questions and discuss our funding request – $3/person from each of the 27 towns in the Windham Region, our service area.
This year, BDCC staff will be present at your town’s information session prior to your Australian Ballot vote, or present at your in-person Town Meeting in early spring. We look forward to answering any questions you may have about our request, our work, and how the region’s economy has been fairing this past year! Keep an eye out for us at your Zoom meeting. Below is some information on the requests that might be of interest to you and your community.
There has been some confusion in some communities on how we arrive at our funding request amount. We base requests on the population of each community, in order to fairly request amounts from each community, big or small. The population number used in requests this year was based on the 2010 census, which was the data available in June 2021 when the municipal funding request process began. We had been waiting for the 2020 census data to be issued but felt that delaying the process any further would undermine our ability to conduct fall visits to all 27 communities we serve. Once the 2020 census data became available in late summer, it was clear that there were population gains in some towns and losses in others. We made a decision to not change our requests based on these changes because we were already months into our funding request process. Regardless of the amount proposed, final funding decisions, are made either by the Selectboard or the Town Meeting body.
At Town Meeting in 2021, SeVEDS received funding from 18 towns which represents over 80% of the Windham Region population. Fifteen of the 18 towns that funded SeVEDS did so at the full $3/per person, including Brattleboro. Brattleboro’s Selectboard once again recommended funding at $3/per person this year, although they too had a discussion of whether to adjust their funding per 2020 census. In that case, they considered increasing funding as the 2020 census count for Brattleboro is higher than the 2010 census count.
Each community is provided with a Town Impact Statement which explains the funding request and provides an overview of BDCC & SeVEDS planning, funding, and activities. This is typically printed in the Town Meeting Report, although we are happy to provide this directly to you upon request.
We always enjoy this time of year in our communities and look forward to connecting with you and answering your questions. Happy Voting!
