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PHOTOS: Town Meeting day

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WILMINGTON — In a 290-184 vote, residents supported taking out a $5.5 million bond to relocate the fire and police stations to a new public safety facility on town-owned land next to the Old School Community Center at 40 Beaver St.

“Getting to this point has been a long road,” a Facebook post on the Wilmington Fire Department’s Facebook page stated prior to the vote. “This proposal has come after hundreds of hours of work to not only design a facility that will meet the needs of the fire and police departments, but most importantly be financially and fiscally responsible to the taxpayers ... Most importantly, it would give the fire and police departments badly needed facilities, so that they may grow and continue to provide the services that we do.”

Select Board Chairman Tom Fitzgerald has said the stations were “rendered useless” during crises stemming from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency strongly urged the town to move both facilities. The town plan, updated in 2018, also calls for upgrading the facilities to meet 21st century standards and moving the stations out of the floodplain.

The board previously approved a $4,740,550 construction bid from Bread Loaf Corporation of Middlebury after the town’s Public Safety Facility Committee previously recommended the bid. A clerk of the works is being sought for the project, according to a notice on the town website.

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Voters approved articles covering the proposed fiscal year 2022 budget for Wilmington’s general fund and highway costs. Together, the expenses total $5,385,075.

“We tried to keep it as level funded as possible yet again this year,” Treasurer Christine Richter said of the budget at a special Select Board meeting held remotely Jan. 21.

Also approved via ballot were articles to put $26,765 in a reserve fund for reappraisals; $175,000 in the Highway Town Road Equipment Capital Fund; $100,000 in the Bridge Capital Fund; $150,000 in the Fire Department Equipment Capital Fund; $5,000 in the Fire House Capital Fund; $20,000 in the Memorial Hall Capital Fund, $12,000 in the Library Capital Reserve Fund, $20,000 in the Town Hall Capital Fund, $20,000 in the Police Equipment Capital Fund; $5,000 in the Transfer Station Capital Fund; and $5,000 in the Public Lands and Fences Capital Fund.

Races for all town positions were uncontested. Select Board members John Gannon, Sarah Fisher and Tony Tribuno ran for reelection.

Kathy Larsen secured another term on the Twin Valley School Board. No one filed a consent form to run for another open seat to represent Wilmington on the School Board and there weren’t enough write-in votes