Royalton Town Meeting Voters OK Purchase of Opera House
By Randy Leavitt

Tuesday morning: yet another icy ride to town, this time for town meeting. It seemed that there were less people in the gym this year compared to other years, perhaps due to the weather, but town meeting got underway as scheduled at 10 a.m. and the last of business was completed shortly after the noon hour. In between, there were two hours of lively debate. 

The debates began with Article V, in which the selectboard asked the town for $250,000 to purchase the Knights Opera House. The current town office space, under the Royalton Memorial Library, has proven too small for the amount of business done. The selectboard and the Royalton Police Department have already moved to the opera house under a one-year lease with its owners, the Crawford family of Royalton. With the approval of this article, the board will conduct negotiations with the Crawfords to purchase the historic 1911 cement-block building. 

This move is contrary to plans of a few years back, which caused the town to purchase land on South Windsor Street for building a new town office, as well as a fire house and even a recreation center. The current board believes that a new town office building would be too costly and that this alternative, renovation of an existing, downtown structure, would best serve the town. The voters seemed to agree as, after much debate, the article passed handily.

The $1,209,403 budget was passed, as written, minus $39,000 that will be made up from surplus funds from last year. The board will roll those monies into this budget to make up the difference. 

The voters also approved the ECFiberNet request, which plans to eventually provide high-speed Internet access, even to the most rural areas in town.  

In the three Australian ballot contests for town offices, incumbent Ernest Amsden won another three-year seat on the selectboard by a vote of 433-278 over David Lewis; Frank Berk defeated incumbent Ilerdon Mayer 393-315 for delinquent tax collector; and incumbent Daphne Moritz was re-elected to the school board by a vote of 501-217 over Karen Kerin. Dennis W. Stamulis was elected as the new First Constable. All other incumbents were re-elected.

School Meeting

The annual meeting of the Royalton School District was held Monday evening. A significant sized crowd in attendance at the South Royalton High School Gym voted "yes" with a show of hands, on Article I, which asked for a budget of $5,687,150 for the 2008-2009 school year.

Board members explained that this budget is an increase of 7.2% from last year’s budget. That increase is largely due to new teacher contracts and an increase in the special ed. budget. About 22% of the increase is due to the new school gym that will soon be built.

During a discussion about the new gymnasium the board was asked why the new gym project was still underway when there is a pending court case requesting a re-vote on the bond.

Board member John Olmstead answered that, at the moment, because the town voted for the bond, they are legally obligated to proceed with the project until otherwise advised.

Article II, also received a "yes" vote. This article asked the town to reassign $40,000 to the Building Reserve Fund.

That money was allocated in 2004 for a project intended to reduce the size of a bathroom in the elementary wing to allow the expansion of a room used for special education. That project was eventually abandoned when the need for that extra space was reduced. The money was waiting to be reallocated or returned to the voters.

Voters also approved an additional re-allocation to the Building Reserve Fund of $98,000 in surplus funds from the 2005-2006 school year.

The board will use this $98,000 and the above-mentioned $40,000 to repair leaks in several sections of roofing on the high school, installed in 1984.

The remaining funds will be applied to renovations to the high school chemistry lab. The chemistry lab was new in the fall of 1960 and is sub-standard.