Cavendish voters pass all articles but six offices left vacant GMUSD director slot unfilled

By Lorien Strange
©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

With just six articles to discuss and little contention over them, Cavendish’s 2025 Town Informational Meeting flew past, clocking in at just under an hour and 15 minutes. It was Cavendish’s first Town Meeting since voters officially decided to continue voting on all articles by Australian ballot and the first in recent years to be held on a Saturday.

The legacy of the 2023 floods reverberated through almost every conversation from disaster prevention measures to news on how local organizations are still picking up the pieces.

In light of recent federal funding cuts and freezes, Sara Stowell of Twenty Mile Stream Road asked if they would affect grants that Cavendish receives.

Town Manager Richard Chambers said there were none right now, but the town was waiting on the rest of $1.9 million from FEMA for the 2023 flooding. The town has received slightly more $40,000. Chambers said he talks to FEMA representatives multiple times a week and, so far, there’s been “no indication of any change” to Cavendish being able to receive the rest of that funding. “We’re still going on the premise the town will be getting the rest,” he said.

Asked what areas of the budget had seen increases over the last few years, outgoing Select Board member George Timko pointed to the rising cost of road maintenance materials and equipment.

Chambers said that this year, the Select Board had tried “budgeting for the future,” putting aside funds for future projects. The town set aside $50,000 for sidewalks this year, “which doesn’t get you much sidewalk,” but should add up over the years, he said.

In response to a question about flood resiliency, Chambers said that Cavendish is doing a Flood Resiliency Study with Ludlow and Plymouth through the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission.

The three towns will be hosting a public workshop about the flood resiliency plans at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 27 at the Ludlow Town Hall, 37 S. Depot St. Chambers encouraged everyone to attend.

Resident Margo Caulfield highlighted several existing flood resiliency programs in town, including a long-term recovery committee with neighboring towns. She stressed that anyone who has issues with town or state culverts on their property should contact the town office, and for issues with privately owned culverts, to contact Culvert Crawlers. “We can help you, but we can’t do that unless we know there’s a problem,” she said.

Sara Stowell asked if the potholes on Quent Phelan Road would be fixed this year, noting that someone had “gone to his grave” demanding the town finally fix them. Chambers said that while they won’t allocate funds to specific road projects until after the budget is approved, “Quent Phelan’s pretty high on the list.”

While discussing the annual article that authorizes the town to collect property taxes, Stowell asked Town Clerk Diane McNamara to explain the section on income sensitivity.

Stowell said she was tired of hearing that Democratic legislators are indifferent to concerns that Vermont is an unaffordable place to live. She sought to clarify that the state’s current education funding system does, in fact, include adjustments based on income.

McNamara said that Act 60 of 1997, which defined the current education funding system, does allow residents property tax credit depending on their income eligibility. The process was designed to provide some relief for full-time Vermont residents from the tax rate increases that came as a result of the new system.

As McNamara noted, data about who files under this program is confidential at the town level. Sen. Alison Clarkson added that 70 percent of Vermonters file property tax by income.

Chris Marks urged voters to agree to a town allocation of $2,500 on voting day for the nonprofit Okemo Valley Technical Rescue, founded last year to help the fire departments of Cavendish, Ludlow, Mount Holly, Proctorsville and Plymouth and the Ludlow Ambulance to fund-raise for shared equipment and training for swift water rescue, which none of these emergency services has.

Along with Windsor County Youth Services, OVTR missed the Nov. 30 appropriations deadline, requiring that they be warned separately from other appropriations on Town Meeting Day.

OVTR was asking each of the four towns it plans to serve — Cavendish, Ludlow, Mount Holly and Plymouth — for $2,500. 

At the beginning of the meeting, Windsor District Democratic state Sens. Alison Clarkson and  Joe Major spoke about education funding, potential effects of federal funding cuts, and committee issues before giving the floor to Rep. V.L. Coffin (R-Windsor-2). In his update, Coffin encouraged residents to fill out a survey to express their views on education reform.