Is Town Meeting Best for Dummerston?

The Views Staff

At the time of this year’s town meeting, Bill Holiday and Paul Normandeau submitted an article to the Views, copied to the selectboard, in support of in-person town meetings. Selectboard member Zeke Goodband asked if he could write a response with his personal thoughts about deciding town business and budget matters by a town meeting vote. We generally avoid contentious issues, but this one seems very fundamental to our town identity. We’ve therefore decided

In Favor of In Person Town Meeting

By Bill Holiday and Paul Normandeau

A recent Board of Civil Authority meeting had approved additions and deletions to the voter list and were given the schedule of assignments for the upcoming town meeting day. BCA members and a few approved members of the community were at the town clerk’s office throughout the voting period to oversee activities. This is state law.

As a result of the Covid pandemic, there has been no in-person town meeting recently. At the conclusion of the BCA meeting some members chatted about the lack of a town meeting. Most were in agreement that they would like to see a return to the in-person variety as soon as possible.

Why have a town meeting? The Greeks are credited with the founding of the pure form of democracy—democracy in which the continued on page 16 to print both articles side by side, and invite Dummerstonians to send letters to us with their thoughts on the subject, which we will print in the next issue of the Views. So please read and consider these opposing viewpoints, and send us your thoughts, written as succinctly as possible, to articles@viewsofdummerston.org. Please keep your letters to a maximum of 150 words, about the length of this introduction, and get them to us by June 20th

Another View of Town Meeting

By Zeke Goodband

I’m going to start by saying that although I am a member of the selectboard, I am speaking for myself and not the board.

I love almost everything about town meeting; catching up with old friends, meeting new neighbors, thoughtful, respectful discussions, amendments to articles and line items, the beauty of Robert’s Rules of Order, the crafting of the town’s future for the coming year. There’s no better place to tell jokes as far as I know.

I am concerned that if we settle for accepting that our present town meeting system is the height of democracy, we may be less inclined to find ways to improve and make it more accessible to all voters.

There are 1,570 registered voters in Dummerston. For in-person town meetings continued on page 17