CABOT – The signing of a warning for town meeting, Tuesday, March 3, was postponed to a special meeting scheduled for January 22 and flood mitigation work at the Cabot Garage site took center stage at the Cabot Select Board’s January 20 meeting.
photo from December 12 draft, “Cabot garage relocation site assessment.”
Mike Hogan wanted to check on the wording of an item allowing listers to increase the exemption for business personal property from $5,000 to $25,000. That item appears as Article 11 to be voted by Australian ballot.
Other Australian ballot items cover election of select persons for one two-year and one three-year term in addition to a three-year term for a town clerk.
Binding articles in the ballot include $773,398 in local taxes toward the general budget of $968,191 and raise $970,766 in additional taxes for the highway budget of $1,130,766.
photo from December 12 draft, “Cabot garage relocation site assessment.”
Additional binding articles on the ballot cover approval of a $125,000 bond for the fire department to replace obsolete radios with new ones and $10,000 for the Cabot Conservation Commission to remove as many as 1,500 used tires from a stream and wetland in lower Cabot.
A final, non-binding advisory vote on construction of a new Cabot Volunteer Fire Department building at 2466 Main Street (between 2506 and 2454 Main, the old Gochey-Marcotte property).
The full warning is at cabotvt.us/town–meeting–warning-2026/.
Mike Hogan was given select board approval to sign a contract for flood mitigation work by Dubois & King expected soon after the January 20 select board meeting without waiting for the next board meeting. That work related to Cabot Garage will increase the size of a culvert under Cabot Garage after the garage is removed.
One of two sites the garage is considering for its new home is on Whittier Hill and owned by Cabot Creamery. The other is a town-owned property on Elm Street. There will not be any cost to the town for the flood mitigation work it will allow, said Gary Gulka in his report to the select board.
A contract for an environmental review of the north tributary bridge replacement project is slated to be signed soon, with an archaeological review expected for approval at the February meeting. The total $7,500 cost of the two contracts would be covered by the town and later reimbursed, said Gulka.
Conversations continue about future plans and funding to take the pressure off the West Hill Pond Dam, with no resolution, but plans for Hogan to meet with the USDA to discuss possible funding.
Discussion about the lack of cellular phone service continued with discussion of possible tower sites to provide coverage from town to Vt. Rte. 2, but no specific plans were made for resolution.
After routine business the meeting adjourned after 92 minutes.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
