Granville Town Meeting Preview
By Martha Slater

Granville voters will gather Tuesday, March 6 at 5 p.m. at the Granville Town Hall, with the annual school district meeting followed by the meeting to conduct town business. Donations received at the supper break during the evening benefit the school.

Following the election of a moderator (Mary Falcon is the incumbent) voters will consider the two school budget articles. Article 2 asks approval for a budget of $454,393 for support of the Granville-Hancock Joint School District, in which Granville’s apportioned amount is $227,196 for the year beginning July 1, 2007.

Article 3 asks approval of the proposed amount of $872,549 to run the school for the 2007-08 year, which includes the joint district assessment from Article 2.

Tammie Beattie is the incumbent for a three-year term on the school board and voters will also need to elect someone to fill a one-year term that that has been vacated.

Town Business

After the supper break, the town business portion of the meeting is warned to get underway at 6:30 p.m. First on the agenda is election of a moderator (Steve Werner is the incumbent), followed by reports from the auditors and selectboard.

Up next are the budget issues. Article 4 asks approval of a proposed town budget of $224,941. Articles 5 and 6 ask voters to appropriate $20,000 to increase the capital fund for replacement of the bridge on Handly Rd. in East Granville; and $4,000 to supplement funds needed for the reappraisal of the Grand List in 2008.

Article 7 asks voters to approve transferring within the Carl Morse Fund the current balance held in the sand shed account to a new account to be established for the construction/expansion of the town clerk’s office.

Article 8 asks for an appropriation of $11,000 over a two-year period for the Granville Vol. Fire Dept. to pay for installation of a septic system with tank and leach field this summer, as well as interior plumbing work, etc. Article 9 seeks approval of a $3,000 appropriation for the fire department’s capital fund for fire equipment. The other financial appropriation request is Article 14, which asks $250 for the Hancock/Granville Food Shelf.

Under Article 10, voters will elect 11 different town officers, including a town clerk and treasurer (Kathy Werner is the incumbent in both of those positions), and a selectboard member for a three-year term (Norm Arseneault is the incumbent). Although it happened too late to be warned for town meeting, Rodney Brown’s resignation created another vacancy on the selectboard. Vivian Branschofsky has announced that she would like to be considered for that seat.

Other officers to be elected include a lister for a three-year- term (Preston Bagley, incumbent), an auditor for a three-year term (Julianna Jennings, incumbent), and a second constable for a two-year term (Chris Martin, incumbent). To be elected for one-year terms are a delinquent tax collector (Nancy Needham, incumbent) a town grand juror (Roger Stauss, incumbent) and an agent to prosecute and defend suits (John Pikulski, incumbent). The final two slots to vote on are a cemetery commissioner for a three-year term (Rhoda Stockwell, incumbent) and a library trustee for a five-year term (Janet Brown, incumbent).

Other items of interest on the warning include Article 13, asking voters to authorize the town planning commission to develop a plan to renovate the library building, and Article 15, which requests voters to continue to exempt the Moss Glen Grange from property taxes.

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