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Chester Budget Passes

At the May 29 Chester Special Town Meeting at the Chester Meeting House, the standing-room-only crowd endured downpours outside and a delay inside, ultimately voting by paper ballot to pass the $14,379,720 2019-’20 budget with 120 “Yes” votes and 79 “No” votes.

Immediately following the meeting, the Board of Finance met and set the 2019-’20 mill rate at 28.79, up 0.68 mills or an increase of 2.5 percent from the current mill rate of 27.11.

The town budget, which includes both town and school debt, rises $64,287 or 1.40 percent to $4,653,159 and the education budget, which contains the $4,857,584 Region 4 budget, itself carrying a $388,003 or 8.68 percent increase, is $9,726,561. The total schools budget has a $593,431 or 6.50 percent increase driven largely by increased enrollment.

Halfway through the voting process, town attorney John Bennett got on stage and announced that he had made a mistake and that he had unintentionally skipped over the opportunity for residents to ask questions about the budget prior to the vote. He asked if voters would like to stop the voting process, back up and open up discussion. At that time, it was unanimously decided that voting would continue without discussion.

“It is unfortunate that the call was incorrectly stated and there was no discussion about the budget and no opportunity to answer questions or clear up any issues about the budget that people may have had,” said Board of Finance Chair Virginia Carmany, adding, “The democratic process was in place tonight and the Parent Teacher Organization did a good job of getting parents out in support of the education budget.

First Selectman Lauren Gister was pleased with the turnout, particularly given that the meeting occurred during a downpour.

“We should have this massive turnout every time we have a vote, even when there is no controversy,” said Gister. “The residents are the legislature for the town of Chester. They are the ones who vote and approve our projects and our spending. The more people who come out and participate in all town votes the better.”

She added, “This budget is not my budget. Our job as town officials is to suggest and guide, not to decide what the town wants, that is up to the residents and that’s why we need them to vote.”

This year, for the first time, the town did two new things that Gister hopes to put into continued use. The first was to provide childcare at Chester Elementary School for voters with children.

“We utilized the park and rec counselors, who are insured and already on staff to provide childcare, which made it very easy and I think it was a great success,” said Gister.

In addition, although the town could not supply drivers, the word was put out that if someone needed a ride, they could call the Town Hall and they would match them up with someone who would provide a ride.

“We had three volunteer drivers, and although there were no calls for rides, I think that is because the word went out and neighbors communicated with one another and provided rides for their neighbors who do not or could not drive themselves,” said Gister.

In addition to the budget passing at the May 29 meeting, the other 16 agenda items of the special meeting were also voted on and passed, by unanimous “Yes” votes. The majority of these items included capital transfers recommended by the Board of Finance.