Sharon Passes Budgets,
Puts Atwood on S’board
By Sandy Vondrasek

A voter casts his ballot in the Presidential primary at the town meeting in Sharon. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

It was a long day at the polls Tuesday in Sharon—open for voting 7 a.m.-7 p.m.—and when it was all over, the town had a new selectman. Brad Atwood, who campaigned actively for the job, was elected over six-year incumbent Kevin Blakeman in a 247-160 vote. Blakeman had filed his petition last minute and said he "stood" for election, without mounting any campaign.

Sharon elects most of its town officers by ballot, and conducts the rest of its affairs on the floor, at a Monday night school meeting and Tuesday morning town meeting.

Voters gulped and okayed a $3.75-million K-12 school budget, with a 10% increase, Monday night.

The $1.5-million budget for the elementary school, where enrollments are declining, was down by 6.7%, or almost $113,000.

However, the $2.1-million budgeted for secondary education was up $434,700, or 26%. Sharon has no public high school, and has no control over these costs, which are almost exclusively tied to tuition and special education.

Most of the double-digit increase in the secondary-ed portion of the budget was in special education costs, which more than doubled, from $358,583 this year to an anticipated $722,403 next year. "Regular" secondary tuitions were up by 5.4%, or $70,700.

CLA Problem

Lister Galen Mudgett has estimated that the new school budget would require a 20¢ increase in the school tax rate, though actual taxes paid would be moderated for many residents via income-sensitivity rebates.

Mudgett said Tuesday that the "good portion" of the school tax increase is due to a precipitous drop in Sharon’s Common Level of Appraisal, which is now at 69%.

The CLA is the state’s calculation of how closely listed values in town match fair market prices. When a town’s CLA falls below average market values, the state adds pennies to that town’s school tax rate, in an effort to equalize the tax burden across the state.

Mudgett noted that the state advised Sharon in November that it must reappraise; listers are planning to do an "in-house" reappraisal in 2009.

Sharon’s last reappraisal was in 2003, but property values—as indicated by real estate sales—have increased substantially since then, and continue to do so, Mudgett said.

Most of the country is worried about plummeting property values, but Sharon is just "hoping the market will level," he added.

There is a real housing squeeze in Sharon—due to a tight housing market in the Connecticut River Valley, the nearby Vermont Law School, and Sharon’s "school choice," at the secondary level, which is drawing families to town, Mudgett indicated.

Some of the most rapidly escalating prices are for modest housing: Sharon has had a number of sales of double-wide, prefabricated homes on cement slabs, at $130,000 and higher, he said.

New Principal

In other business at the school meeting, voters returned Donald Shaw to the school board, and saluted Sharon Elementary School Principal Sheila Moran who is retiring at the end of this year, after seven years at the school.

School Board Chair Deborah Hopkins noted that the board has found a replacement, 30-year-old Barrett Williams, who is presently interim principal at Chelsea Public School.

Town Meeting

Tuesday’s two-hour Town Meeting saw voters passing budgets and articles with little discussion.

Voters approved the selectboard’s $990,405 budget, up $56,000 or 6.1%. It is expected to add a penny to the town tax rate.

The one issue that did draw an extended debate was the non-binding resolution to support the ECFiberNet project.

According to Town Clerk Debra St. Peter, a number of "good speakers" expounded on the proposal, which would bring high-speed Internet, telephone and TV to 25 towns.

"Then it was overwhelmingly voted in," she said.

Townspeople learned that Moderator Mike Hillinger won’t be available to run next year’s meeting, as he is moving out of town.

Sharon elects its moderator via Australian ballot. Since no one filed to run for moderator next year, Hillinger’s replacement will likely be voted on the floor next year, St. Peter said.

Selectman Dale Potter spoke on the importance of volunteers to the town, and urged citizens to find their way to pitch in. He specifically saluted five people who tend flower beds in town: Carol and Leon Sheldon, Floyd and Nancy Brown, and Elizabeth Ward.

Turnout at the polls was big on Tuesday, with 483 of 957 registered voters participating in the presidential primary, St. Peter said.