By Emma Stanton, Staff Writer
The Village of Woodstock’s annual Village Meeting will be held at the Woodstock Town Hall on Tuesday, March 17. Voting, via Australian ballot, will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the two open trustee positions. One position will be for a three-year term, the other for a two-year term.
Two Woodstock Village residents have submitted nominating petitions to be placed on the ballot — Stephen Stuntz, who will run for the three-year term, and Jamie Fox, who will run for the two-year term. Current trustees chair Seton McIlroy and trustee Frank Horneck will not be seeking re-election.
Then, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on March 17, village residents can gather at Town Hall to vote from the floor for the remaining articles of consideration.
The floor vote will begin with the nominations for other local office positions, including the moderator (1-year term), trustee of public funds (1-year term), village clerk (1-year term), and treasurer (1-year term).
Article 2 asks voters to approve the payment of village officers, with the trustees to receive $750 per year, the village treasurer to receive $150 per year, the village clerk to receive $400 per year, and the moderator to receive $50 each time they serve. McIlroy told the Standard, “The trustees have voted to not receive their pay in order to lower the taxes.” The $750 allocated to each of the five trustees has been excluded in the final proposed budget seen on the ballot, McIlroy explained.
Article 3 asks voters to approve the collection of village general taxes on real estate and other taxes levied through the treasurer, with the fixed dates of payment on Nov. 6, 2026, and May 7, 2027, with the required payment to be received by the Town Office by the close of business on those days.
Article 4 asks voters to authorize the treasurer to borrow money, if necessary, in anticipation of taxes for fiscal year 2026-2027 to defray current expenses and debt of the village.
Article 5 asks voters to approve a budget of $1,805,116.18. Of that amount, up to $839,547.40 will be raised by taxation to pay expenses and debt of the village. The total budget breakdown is as follows: general government ($543,542.95), boards and agencies ($88,635.20), village parks ($1,700), village police ($1,163,738.03), and trustee contingency ($7,500).
“Voters are only voting on that final $1.8M number,” McIlroy said. “They are not voting on line-items, [if something] costs more, we will move money around. And of that $1.8M, only $839k can be raised by taxation. The other million dollars is coming from other things.” McIlroy mentioned that some of these other revenue streams will be from parking fees, and the roughly $600,000 the town pays the village for the use of the local police.
“When you have that breakdown of the police budget of [roughly] $1.2M, $600,000 of that is already coming from the town as payment. The rest would be either allocated through the money raised by taxes or other money the village takes in,” McIlroy concluded.
“The projected tax rate increase [from last year’s approved budget] is 9.86%,” McIlroy explained later in a text to the Standard. “The [projected] tax rate is .2765 [or] $276.50 per $100,000.”
Article 6 asks voters to raise and appropriate from taxes $3,000 for the purpose of village beautification projects and seasonal decorations.
“Christmas lights and flower boxes have been taken over by the town,” McIlroy explained. “I believe [the selectboard] is paying for that for the upcoming year out of the local option tax fund. What [Article 6] is for, and what we have used this fund for in the past, is Halloween candy, which is always $1,500 or more. The rest we use for random things we need throughout the year, like extra signs and clean-up.”
Article 7 asks voters to appropriate $400 for the purpose of paying the trustee of public funds. “The trustee of public funds was Jill Davies, but she doesn’t live here anymore. The next person we elect will be in charge of keeping an eye on [the public] funds,” McIlroy said.
Article 8 will ask voters to appropriate another $400 to pay to have the public funds audited and to approve expenditures from the income of the trust funds.
Article 9, McIlroy explained, allows anyone at the meeting to raise an issue or concern that can be discussed but not voted on. “It’s similar to public comment at the trustee meetings, but we cannot vote on something brought up during Article 9 because it would not be properly warned.”
McIlroy encourages village residents to go to Town Hall between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to vote, via Australian ballot, for the two Trustee candidates, and they are encouraged to return at 7:30 p.m. that same day for the floor vote.
“It’s very important to show up and vote,” McIlroy concluded. “Not only because you need to make your voice heard, but this is how you understand how your local government works.”
