Randolph Town Offices
Will Stay Where They Are

By M. D. Drysdale

The Randolph town offices should stay where they are, voters decided Tuesday in a special Australian ballot.

They voted 223-173 not to allow $1.2 million in bonded money to be spent to purchase new space in the former Merrimaid's building last used by the Randolph Cooperative Market.

As a result, the selectboard will now dust off plans to spend the bond money as originally intended- to expand and renovate the current offices located off Summer Street near the municipal parking lot.

Those plans were delayed by two successful lawsuits against the town filed by resident William Kevan. The first lawsuit challenged the decision to cut down a crabapple tree as part of the expansion. The second challenged the way the selectboard put the project out to bid.

The tree controversy has been re-visited in accordance with the Superior Court's decision, and has arrived at the same result- the tree may be cut down.

The bidding for the project must now be done over, again in accordance with the Superior Court's decision.

In turning down the request to purchase the former co-op market space, voters rejected the 4-2 recommendation of the Municipal Building Committee, headed by Selectboard Chair Jim Hutchinson. The selectboard itself had declined either to recommend or oppose the idea.

WRVA Supported

By an overwhelming margin of 296 to 99, voters did agree to add $35,000 to Randolph's contribution to the current year's budget of the White River Valley Ambulance.

Randolph had refused to vote the entire increase asked by WRVA last year, citing difficulties within the management of the organization. WRVA, while still strapped for cash, is now under new management, and a 3-2 majority of the selectboard recommended that the $35,000 be added to its allocation.

Tom Anderson, president of the WRVA board, was buoyed by the "significant margin" represented by the vote.

"We all win from this," he said. "It allows us to move forward in a really positive manner. This is a vote for the crews and the staff and the clinical team and the fantastic service they've been providing.

"A lot of people worked really hard to get to this situation, and I'm deeply appreciative of the support," he concluded

Selectman Damon Lease, however, made it clear after the votes were counted that he thought the town was making a mistake in "bailing out" an organization that he said had been mismanaged.

The 396 people who voted Tuesday were only 13.2% of the 2990 people eligible to vote, said Assistant Town Clerk Linda Nissl. That's disappointingly low for such an important vote, she agreed, but noted that special meetings such as this often attract an even lower percentage of eligible voters.