CABOT — Newcomers Peggy Miller and Jennifer Miner defeated select board incumbents Karen Larsen and Richard “R.D.” Eno during Tuesday’s town meeting day Australian balloting. Miller’s 228 surpassed Larsen’s 179 for the two-year board seat. The three-year seat will be filled by Miner, who garnered 236 votes to Eno’s 172 for a three-year seat on the board.
Recent issues with how the fire department and Cabot Emergency Ambulance Service interact have generated uncomfortable select board discussions. A proposal for the Cabot Community Investment Fund (CCIF) to merge with UDAG and scholarship funds, potentially putting funding for some annual community events in jeopardy, was also defeated 223 to 164 as article 11 Tuesday.
Cabot School Director Chris Tormey was re-elected to a three-year term on the board and Melissa Pratt is newly elected to the school board for a two-year term. Both were unopposed.
The town budget of $946,044 passed 312-108, as did the highway budget of $978,712, by a vote of 365-59.
Town voters restored $5,234.35 that the select board had cut from the library budget in the town budget proposal in a vote of 310 to 113.
The building owned by Neighbors in Action that was previously owned by the town and known as the Masonic Temple was exempted from tax for five years in a 307 to 114 vote.
The select board’s approval of a revised 2025 town plan was affirmed by a vote of 270 70 112 and a UDAG loan to Cabot Commons with a remaining balance of $25,721 will be forgiven.
The $4,516,239 school budget passed on a vote of 245 to 166 and the school board was authorized to create a reserve fund.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
