An oft-delayed bond vote to fund renovations to the Woodstock wastewater treatment facility will now be kicked into the new year.
This week, the Woodstock Town Selectboard deferred a decision on a new date for the public to weigh in on the bond until the town governing body holds a scheduled joint meeting with the Village Trustees next Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 5:30 p.m. at Town Hall. Two dates in 2026 are under consideration for the wastewater plant bond vote: the annual Town Meeting Day on Tuesday, March 3, and the statewide primary election day on Tuesday, Aug. 11. Holding the vote on one of those two established election dates would maximize the use of town staff resources, which would be stretched if a special vote were to be slated on a different date next year.
Originally set for November 2024, the Woodstock selectboard first rescheduled the wastewater plant bond vote to Town Meeting Day in March of this year to prioritize other capital projects, including the acquisition of the Woodstock Aqueduct Company (WAC), the municipal water utility, which was finalized on April 30. The anticipated vote on Town Meeting Day was subsequently pushed to this fall to enable the engineering firm for the wastewater project, Hoyle Tanner, extra time to further flesh out the design phase of the project.
At a special meeting of the Woodstock selectboard on Monday afternoon, convened to discuss the proposed bond vote, municipal manager Eric Duffy said the engineering firm’s work on the plan for the plant’s extensive renovation is “close” to completion, with both the plant designers and public officials now looking toward a wide-reaching public education campaign to sell the bond to the voters. “What [Hoyle Tanner] is really looking for is the social media campaign – the tours, the pamphlets, the public education process,” Duffy told the selectboard. A public outreach effort of that sort was part of the effort to gain public approval of the WAC acquisition at a pair of public votes late last year.
For more on this, please see our October 9 edition of the Vermont Standard.
