Brookfield Changes Horses In Town and School Govt.

By Norman Runnion

Peggy Poffenberger (right) visits with young Shea Fontanella, held by mom Stephanie Jones, at Brookfield's Town Meeting. (Herald / Bob Eddy)

The incumbent chairs of the Brookfield school board and the board of selectmen were defeated Tuesday during an often angry Town Meeting.

Town voters also supported the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, whose theme is "change," and change was the order of the day for a standing-room only crowd in the elementary school.

School board Chair Linda Runnion, who has been a board member for 23 years, lost by six votes to Jim Merriam, a solar engineer in his first try for public office. The vote was 198-192, with 70 blank ballots.

Selectboard Chair John Benson, who is also the town’s fire chief, lost by nine votes, 209-200, to Justin Poulin, a farmer who ran unsuccessfully for the board last year.

Oldcomer John Sprague, a former chair of the selectmen, was elected unopposed to a one year term. He replaces incumbent Steve Hill, who has stepped down because of illness.

The Brookfield school and town budgets passed easily. A total of 462 ballots were cast, a huge turnout.

Much of the day was dominated by a contentious and sometimes ugly debate over town roads and the personality and practices of road foreman David Gilderdale, who came to Brookfield from Randolph’s roads three years ago.

Sid Cushing, an unsuccessful candidate for selectman last year, asked the board if they had checked Gilderdale’s background before hiring him.

"He is not doing his job, plain and simple," Cushing said. One town resident described the tone of the meeting as "road rage", which came to the fore with a proposal from the floor to add $1000 to the $482,892 highway budget to be used for "training."

"Money won’t solve the problem," one person said. "They need a change in attitude and you don’t buy that with money." Another person commented that "there is a lot of anger in the room about roads" and asked the board to respond. "We want our roads drivable and safe," he added.

Board chair Benson had the unhappy task of responding to the criticism, which came often from Justin Poulin who was seeking—successfully, it turned out—to replace him.

Poulin particularly questioned a request for funds to cover Brookfield’s portion of the expenses of rebuilding the lower portion of West Street which was destroyed by last summer’s rainstorm-driven floods. The road lies in Brookfield, Randolph and Braintree, and is eligible for FEMA assistance.

Poulin, who said he was driving on the road when the storm hit and saw portions of it disappearing in front of his eyes, proposed delaying a decision until the town had more information about costs. He was overruled on a voice vote. Another suggestion from the floor, to forget about the repairs because the road is so little used, was rejected loudly by those who used to travel the road, and by a Brookfield fireman who said West Street is the fastest way to get fire equipment to West Brookfield. Town meeting then told the selectmen to pursue getting the road fixed.

Media Heavies

Brookfield’s meeting drew some heavy media coverage, including from the Burlington Free Press’s renowned Candace Page, whose aunt and uncle, Ellen and Dr. Driscoll Reid, were from the Randolph area, and a crew from WCAX-TV, which showed footage on its newscasts.

Brookfield farmer Skip Buck achieved his 15 seconds of fame during the discussion of ECFiberNet’s proposals, by telling WCAX that he did not have a computer and didn’t know how to use one. Similarly, Poulin said he didn’t see the need for the service, since he had slow speed dial-up and that suited him. There were howls of protest from those who like a little modernization with their laptops, and the item passed.

As for the schools, discussion normally is brief since voting is by up or down Australian ballot which does not permit debate on agenda items. There were brief reports by Linda Runnion and Principal Bob Rosane, who was questioned about the fact he also holds the title of assistant superintendent of schools.

Who pays his salary? was one question. The answer is Brookfield. How many hours does he work as an assistant superintendent? About 10 hours a week, all in the Brookfield school. The arrangement has come about because of Rosane’s desire to be a school superintendent some day and to get some experience first.

Board chair Runnion was questioned sharply by Neil Husher, whose wife Kristen is in her first year as a school board member, about the make-up of one specific class of students. Both Runnion and Rosane felt the discussion was straying into sensitive areas which should be outside of a public forum, and moderator Richard Mallary soon called for the meeting to end.

The Presidential primary drew a good deal of attention, with a lot of "Hillary" signs posted around the parking lot, and a forlorn "Ron Paul" sign stuck in a snowbank. But signs are not votes. Obama won Brookfield witih 238 votes to Clinton’s 114. Sen. John Edwards got 5 and Dennis Kuchnich 2.

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain, the apparent GOP nominee, received 61 votes, followed by Mike Huckabee with 18, Ron Paul with 8, Mitt Romney with 5 and Rudolph Guiliani with 1. The hotly contested Democratic race drew 360 votes to the Republicans’ 95.