HARDWICK – The future of Hardwick Town Meeting Day floor votes in March 2027 and beyond will depend on a special town meeting vote set for next Tuesday evening by the select board in response to a petition submitted by 170 community members, well over the 5% (117) voters required.
map courtesy Trust for Public Lands
The petition called for a vote to decide all future Town Meeting Day financial questions by Australian ballot. The select board expanded the question to include all future town meeting questions, including town officers.
Another petition submitted at the same time called for reconsideration of allocating $25,000 to a proposed Buffalo Mountain Town Forest that voters approved on Town Meeting Day in March
The special meeting comes Tuesday, May 19, at 6:30 p.m., in the Town House at the intersection of Church and Depot Streets. Parking will be available in the Town House lot, along Church Street and in the parking lot on Creamery Road across from the Hardwick Town Garage.
Because of concerns raised at, and following, this year’s town meeting about the possibility of votes being cast by those not registered to vote in Hardwick, a new procedure will be in place.
Voters will be checked-in as they arrive for the meeting, said Town Clerk Tonia Chase. Chase and the select board are recommending voters arrive by 6 p.m. to be checked in prior to the 6:30 p.m. meeting start time.
Those in attendance at the informational meeting before the select board meeting, last Thursday, May 7, were told it is hoped a food truck will be on hand too.
Hardwick Select Board members have been voted on by Australian ballot at least since 1988, when the merger of the separate town and village governments into a single municipal entity was approved by the Vermont Legislature.
A majority vote in favor of the special meeting’s Article 2 will lead to all warned Town Meeting Day articles being voted by Australian ballot.
Select board members at the informational meeting wouldn’t speculate on details of how future town meetings might happen if that article is approved. Presumably the polls would be open for a range of hours on own Meeting Day, or a date just before it, and allow for absentee ballot voting, thus giving all town voters the chance to cast their ballot, regardless of their ability to visit the voting place on the day of the vote.
Conversation about the town’s move to holding all Town Meeting Day votes by Australian ballot has been lively on Front Porch Forum and Facebook, with individuals making arguments on both sides of the issue. One thing almost all commenters agree on is that there’s likely to be a large turnout for the special meeting.
Before that vote, Article 1 calls for an answer to the question of allocating $25,000 toward the purchase of a proposed Buffalo Mountain Town Forest encompassing roughly 329 acres that includes the summit of Buffalo Mountain. It suggests creation of the forest will “protect recreational access, fish and wildlife habitat, forestry and Lamoille River water quality, while it will “provide outdoor educational opportunities for schoolchildren.”
Almost three times as many voters signed the petition calling for the revote than voted against the proposal at the Hardwick Town Meeting in March. The hand count then was roughly 160 in favor and 60 opposed, according to Moderator Audrey Grant.
The petition calling for the revote garnered 167 valid signatures, 60 more than the required 5% (117) of registered town voters (2,333 at that time), and 7 more than the Town Meeting Day votes to approve the $25,000 allocation.
Recently, Northern Rivers Land Trust (NRLT), the organization managing the town forest purchase, mailed over 450 postcards detailing the upcoming special town meeting and reconsideration vote to a “publicly available list of people who voted on Town Meeting Day this year and last,” said Hannah Redmon, who works as an NRLT Land Protection Project Associate.”
The mailing noted “Buffalo Mountain is a 329-acre property along the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and adjacent to Atkins Field that could become a new Town Forest with permanent free access for all by the end of 2026.”
Talk of the town owning the summit of Buffalo Mountain for a park dates back at least 113 years, to 1913, when, in an opinion column titled, ”A Park For Hardwick?” a Hardwick Gazette writer said, “On Buffalo mountain rests Hardwick’s main chance for a public park that would be inexpensive to acquire and maintain. Not the whole mountain at first, but a good-sized tract large enough for park purposes. Do you know that on Buffalo Mountain in the Spring grow the most wonderfully fragrant Canada violets, red and white trilliums, better known as ‘sweet Benjamins,’ adder’s tongues, jack-in-the pulpit, anemone, rare lady-slippers and an untold host of other forest flowers?”
It continued, “A park on Buffalo Mountain would be unique. What other village in Vermont can boast of a mountain park, a forest preserve almost in its streets? It is true that to enjoy its beauties would mean a climb, but the good things in this world come only to those who make an effort.”
The writer added, “Under private ownership, the day will inevitably come when the lumber lust will strip the hill, and leave the rock ledges bare and unsightly, and Hardwick will lose much of its charm. The time to start a park is now.”
While the idea came to naught then, Redmon has collaborated with the Hardwick Conservation Commission (HCC), who identified the opportunity to purchase parcels that include the Buffalo Mountain summit from several Davis family members.
She has attended several Hardwick Select Board meetings and says she intends to be at the May 19 special meeting, along with NRLT Board Members and members of the Hardwick Conservation Commission o answer any questions that may arise during discussion prior to the vote.
In talking about the upcoming vote, Redman said “We have heard from funders of the Buffalo Mountain project that they were happy with the town meeting vote, which they felt demonstrated positive local investment and momentum.”
Recently she did not speculate on what a reversal of the vote, on May 19, might mean.
Earlier the select board voted to accept a gift of the property. At that time no commitment was made for the town to provide funding.
Prior to the first vote, Redmon said she expected the purchase and subsequent gift to the town would proceed regardless of the vote, though the $25,000 would need to be contributed from elsewhere if town voters turned down the proposal. At that time she commented that the $25,000 allocation would show the support of town voters when requests for funding were being submitted to other sources.
“Town forests like Buffalo Mountain are a community resource for future generations, and I hope the conversations about it over the past year have led to more clarity in the community’s goals for the town forest,” she said.
Redmon noted that the select board is taking applications through May 15 for the Town Forest Steering Committee. “I look forward to continued community investment in the management planning process that will take place this summer and fall.”
NRLT and HCC are hosting a final Hardwick Town Forest informational meeting virtually, via Zoom, Thursday, May 14, at 12:30 p.m. Registration for that meeting can be found on the HCC website at hardwickvt.gov/government/committees-commissions/conservation-commission/.
The Hardwick Planning Commission has been asking or community input to help guide the 2027 update to the Hardwick Municipal Plan and will be asking those attending the meeting to complete the survey, which now has just 169 of the hoped for 300 responses. An online version of the survey can be found on the town website at hardwickvt.gov.
