HARDWICK – Town Clerk Tonia Chase has announced the open offices to be filled on town meeting day, March 4, 2025.
The open town positions include one three-year term and two one-year terms on the Hardwick Select Board and a three-year term for town clerk and treasurer.
The Hazen Union District No. 26 school board will have one open three-year and two open one-year terms remaining on three-year terms.
Open offices to be voted from the floor at the 2025 Town Meeting are first and second constables; a town agent, surveyor of wood, bark and lumber; a town tree warden and grand juror. Those interested in those positions can be nominated at town meeting with no advance notice.
Hardwick voted several years ago to repeal the powers of the first and second constables as Vermont Law was requiring them to receive training from the Vermont Police Academy and certain certifications that were deemed unnecessary. In some towns the constable is the town’s local law enforcement officer, with all powers of search, seizure and arrest within the town. In other towns, the constable only has the power to serve civil process, assist the health officer in the discharge of his or her duties, destroy unlicensed dogs, kill injured deer, remove disorderly people from town meeting, and, if the first constable, to collect taxes if no tax collector is elected. (17 VSA 2646 (7); 2651a)
A town agent executes deeds on behalf of the town. (24 VSA 1601)
The position of surveyor of wood bark and lumber is appointed, upon request, to examine, measure, and classify the quality of lumber, shingles and wood sold within a town. (24 VSA 871)
The town tree warden plans and implements a shade tree preservation program for the purpose of shading and beautifying public spaces, removes diseased, dying or dead trees, which create a hazard to public safety or threaten the effectiveness of disease or insect control programs. (24 VSA 871)
The board may appoint a grand juror who shall inquire into any person’s offenses under the authority’s rules or applicable law and present them to the proper authority. If the attorney general or the state’s attorney is unwilling to prosecute such offenses, the grand juror may do so. For these purposes, the grand juror shall have the same authority within the authority as the State’s Attorney. (24 VSA 901 & 22)
Those interested in running for any of the open positions to be voted by Australian ballot must pick up a nominating Petition and Consent of Candidate form from the town clerk’s office, said Chase. The nominating petition must be signed by at least 24 valid registered Hardwick voters, though 30 are suggested by Chase to be on the safe side. The original petition and completed consent form must be submitted to the town clerk’s office no later than 5 p.m., January 27, 2025.
Contact the town clerk’s office at (802) 472-5971 with questions.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
