CHESTER, Vt. – The Chester Selectboard’s July 1 meeting marked the beginning of an ongoing review of town personnel, departments, and services, aimed at educating Chester taxpayers about the services the town provides. These meetings, said Town Manager Julie Hance, are also meant to provide the community an opportunity to give feedback to the town about which services they feel are necessary, and which they could potentially live without, in light ever-increasing municipal tax rates which are affecting towns statewide.
First up for review was the town clerk’s office, which includes Town Clerk Amie Record and Assistant Town Clerk Samatha Vertefeuille. Record began her summary of the town clerk’s duties by noting that the town clerk is responsible for administration of local, state, and federal elections held in Chester, including compiling the town’s voter checklist. In order to keep up to date with changing laws and regulations surrounding election protocols, Record said she had recently attended an election-related training in Rutland. The town clerk also maintains land records, such as deeds, mortgages, easements, and liens, and vital records, such as marriage, birth, and death certificates, as well as administering and recording oaths required of public office holders, police officers, and other town employees and officials.
The town clerk’s office is also currently working on the digitization of Chester’s Grand List, which not only allows for more efficient access to the records therein, but saves the town the expense of contracting the job out.
In that same vein, Hance noted that many town employees, including Record and Vertefeuille, are cross-trained and performing duties which were previously performed by entirely separate employees. Hance noted that, when she took the position of town manager in 2020, her previous position of assistant town manager was left vacant, and instead Record and Vertefeuille have filled many of the gaps. “They do a lot of other stuff…that I used to do [as assistant town manager] for [former town manager] David [Pisha],” Hance said. This prompted board member Peter Hudkins to wonder if these duties were covered in their job descriptions. Hance replied that job descriptions are currently being updated to reflect the new scope of duties many town employees are now handling.
As this overview was winding down, Chester resident Wanda Purdy, who has served the town in multiple roles in the past, including assistant town clerk and chair of the board of listers, told the board that she believes the town must make cuts to services to avoid unsustainable tax increases, saying that her municipal taxes had increased in the range of $300 for the past two years. Purdy suggested taking town employee benefits to 80/20, rather than their current level of 100%, noting she had other ideas as well. “We’re just a small town, maybe we don’t need all of these things,” Purdy said. “If I’m going to have to cut my budget and decide how I’m going to spend my money in the most beneficial way, then I think the town should too.” Chair Lee Gustafson thanked Purdy for her comments, and encouraged other community members to be part of these discussions at future meetings.
Next up, the board spoke with Facilities Director Steve Vertefeuille, who outlined the primary services provided by the facilities department. Hance explained that, prior to the creation of the facilities director position, many town buildings “had been neglected for so many years,” and this led to recurrent maintenance costs to keep the buildings operational and habitable.
Vertefeuille explained that he is primarily responsible for preventive maintenance at town buildings, such as the public safety building, town hall, town garage, library, academy building, sewer plant, and recreation facilities, handling tasks such as painting, electrical work, plumbing, and other troubleshooting. He also assists and manages contractors hired by the town. Recently, Vertefeuille has been managing the $500,000 energy grant project installing energy upgrades to municipal buildings, which Hance stated is saving the town approximately 20% of the project cost, as it would otherwise need to hire a municipal project manager.
Vertefeuille also responds to fire and ambulance calls when necessary, and serves as the assistant fire warden, as well as doing welding and fabrication, and assisting any and all other departments with their maintenance needs.
The board noted that the cost savings incurred by the town due to Vertefeuille’s work are often difficult to quantify due to their preventive nature, but believed that they were significant. “It’s the preventive maintenance,” Vice Chair Arne Jonynas said, “the checking of the buildings and spotting [problems] before they become expensive and break down in the middle of the night.”
“We never used to catch a lot of that,” Jonynas added. “Things would just break and we’d have to deal with it.”
The town will continue to review its services at its upcoming meetings. The July 15 selectboard meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., at the Chester Town Hall, will include a review of the town’s recreation services and its planning, zoning, and assessing services.