by Gazette Staff
MARSHFIELD – VT Digger stories in the past two weeks featured quotes from Marshfield’s Town Clerk Bobbi Brimblecombe. They reported that the town is going to try an experiment, holding their town meeting on Sunday, March 3, “to see if we can get more participation,” said Brimblecombe.
Draft select board minutes indicate town meeting will include voting on a budget “that is a 5.5% increase in taxes. The budget will include $75,000 in engineering costs for new bridges, $215,000 of ARPA money used to provide regular town services, and a $25,000 appropriation to the Old Schoolhouse Common building fund.
The select board added a property at 692 Holt Road to the Federal Emergency Watershed Protection Program that helps local communities recover after a natural disaster strikes. Two other properties are being submitted for buyouts with Vermont Emergency Management under a federal program.
VT Digger reported that “Marshfield, population, 1,583, annually collects about $1 million in taxes, Brimblecombe said. Last summer’s flood, in comparison, created $1.6 million in local damage — not counting the future cost to replace four destroyed bridges.”
“We hope to get that much in FEMA reimbursements,” Brimblecombe said, “but the timing is unknown.”
The VT Digger report went on to say that “Marshfield has taken out a line of credit as it applies for assistance. But since the time when the town sought help after similar flooding in 2011, FEMA is requiring local leaders to provide more specific information, such as how many damaged trees were six or more inches in diameter “at breast height.”
“The number of questions they ask doesn’t seem to end,” Brimblecombe said.
In hopes of helping, the state is offering communities low-interest loans through a new $15 million Municipal Climate Recovery Fund. But the clerks in Barre City, Marshfield and Middlesex don’t expect to receive full support, noting their three requests alone would eat up one-third of the entire fund.”
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
