ROCKINGHAM — As a tenacious merger committee enters its ninth month of meetings to amend the town charter for a town merger that has been considered periodically for decades, yet another stumbling block appears to have stalled the process.
Having gotten through amending the water and wastewater utilities in Chapter 9 of the town charter chapters in June, the committee in July found its biggest challenge in Chapter 10, which deals with the fire and police departments.
Chapter 10 also deals with budget, Town Meeting, assets and debt, terms of office, and village ordinances, as well as the effective date of the revised charter, if and when it is approved by the Legislature.
Concerns over police and fire services have left the merger committee in a stalemate, one it hopes may be resolved at a special meeting of the committee scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m.
Once the fully amended charter is released by the committee, it goes back to each of the two boards (Saxtons River opted not to participate in the merger discussions) to consider, including two public hearings.
Paying for protection
In August, at its eighth meeting, the committee faced the biggest point of contention for some villagers - determining fire and police special service areas.
Bellows Falls has both full-time fire and police responders, which is a significant portion of the Village budget. In an effort to address budgetary concerns, an article was proposed at this year's Village Meeting to switch to an all-volunteer fire department. That proposal was defeated.
Rockingham and Saxtons River both have volunteer fire departments, and their law enforcement needs are served by the Windham County Sheriff's Department and Vermont State Police.
The merger committee found itself at an impasse last month, and will revisit, for the purposes of clarification, the sections that lay out special services areas for police and fire in Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, and rural Rockingham.
Leading with defining parameters, the last chapter begins by laying out that the Bellows Falls Village Corporation “shall become a geographic location, losing its self-governing status,” putting the Rockingham Selectboard in charge of the grand list for assessment of Bellows Falls, and putting the indebtedness of the Village in the hands of the Rockingham Selectboard.
Two surveys conducted by Town Manager Willis “Chip” Stearns III at Saxtons River and Bellows Falls village meetings this year asked the dual questions: Do you want townwide fire and police coverage?
Saxtons River residents responded with twice as many saying they did not want townwide policing, with slightly less saying they also did not want a townwide fire department.
Bellows Falls, however, had twice as many who responded they did want a townwide police force. The respondents were more evenly matched in responding to the policing question, with 18 saying they want it and 15 saying “no.”
In a memo dated July 22, 2015, Stearns wrote that he had not polled the rest of Rockingham and was open as to how that might be accomplished.
Procedures and funding of special service areas were approved, giving the Selectboard, as approved by a majority vote of residents, discretion to appoint areas to receive services not available to other areas, support for special services paid for by taxation based on the Grand List, and giving the voters last say if they want to vote on modifications - or elimination - of those services at the annual Town Meeting.
However, the stumbling block was gaining approval for this passage: “Police protection in the former Bellows Falls Village area shall be considered a Bellows Falls Police Special Service Area for those residing therein.”
That was defeated in a 5 to 4 vote.
Who benefits?
Members of the public expressed continued concerns about how the Village gains from a merger, an issue so far unaddressed.
Without knowing what those specifics are, said vocal merger opponent Andrew Smith, the document is “predatory by its nature.”
Smith opined that the draft as amended was “overreaching and aggressive,” and likened it to a “scripted funeral for the Village of Bellows Falls.”
However, longtime Village resident and attorney Ray Massucco surmised that “by the time this gets to a vote, if it does, which I doubt, there will be no identifiable benefit to all of the residents, town or village.”
Massucco said he does not worry about the village losing its identity: “We'll always be BF for most purposes.”
Massucco told The Commons that “there may be some nominal administrative savings, but with all the special districts being defined, those currently taxed for those services will still pay for them.”
He said one possible exception could be the expansion of police services, “but rural Rockingham has made it clear that they are not interested for the most part.”
He added that the Bellows Falls Fire Department “is a great target but, in the end, people want protection. The current facility and level of staffing and equipment owned is a direct result of the series of disastrous fires we had in the late 1970s into early 1980s,” including the Star Hotel fire in December 1981 that claimed the lives of two firefighters.
Smith said the committee has given no consideration to fair compensation to Village taxpayers or their investment in Village assets. He said he felt it was now too late for the committee to credibly address these issues.
He said that the Town of Rockingham has been operating under state statute since the 18th century, and merger advocates now seek a town charter to increase the size and power of town government and to ease the ways for a Town seizure of Village assets.
As for significant economic benefit, Smith stated, if there is a benefit it should have come to light at the outset and as a starting point and discussed by the Merger Committee.
Smith noted that town voters historically pass proposed budgets, and - if townwide services as noted in the draft charter are implemented - the costs of a merged government can be expected to quickly exceed the present sum total.
Smith added that the present basic town and village structures are not broken and don't need fixing.
After failing to approve a special services amendment, committee member and trustee Sandy Martin stated that it appeared the committee was at an impasse on item 10.3 and a clarification was necessary on 10.2C and how this will impact 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6.
The committee agreed. These items will be revisited at the Sept. 29 meeting.